


Let's Stay Together

by sinecura



Category: Deadpool (Movieverse)
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst, Banter, Blowjobs, Bottom Wade Wilson, Choking, Couch Sex, Daddy Kink, Dirty Talk, Domestic Fluff, Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Language, Fixer Upper shenanigans, Flirting, Fluff to Smut, House Hunting, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Masturbation, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multiple Orgasms, Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, Orgasm Denial, Pining, Post-Deadpool 2 (2018), Power Play, Rimming, Sexual Tension, Shower Sex, Slow Burn, Top Nate Summers, Wade needs love and Nate has love to give, shower masturbation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-05-30 02:16:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15086849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinecura/pseuds/sinecura
Summary: 'Cause you make me feel so brand new and I want to spend my life with you; also known as Wade took Nathan's statement of sticking around for a while seriously, whether times are good or bad, happy or sad.





	1. Tough to Swallow

Wade couldn’t believe he was still alive. He wasn’t supposed to be. 

There were too many holes in his suit, too much duct tape holding his broken pieces together, too much dried blood crusted up in places that should’ve killed him when it started flowing. But there he was, against all fucking odds, ass in the dirt like a kid in a sandbox, staring dumbly out at the darkness that was creeping up to swallow the last threads of daylight.  

He felt that darkness creeping behind his eyes not 5 minutes ago. It was peaceful, blissful, warm, and familiar; simultaneously like slipping into a bath and breaking the surface of water. A release of pressure that had been building since her knees hit the floor of the apartment. 

_Vanessa, I’m coming. I’m here, baby. I’m with you._

_“It’s not your time.”_  

He flexed his fingers in his gloves just because he could, feeling the leather stretch without a sound. Worn out, broken-in, well loved. Like him? With a mirthless chuckle, he stood and kicked the broken collar at his feet. It thumped onto its side, like a flipped pancake, with a dull thud. Ha. Pancakes. He could go for some pancakes. Waffles. Anything edible, really, since he literally got his stomach ripped from his body not 2 hours earlier. 

X-force had dispersed. Domino had rallied the kids (and Russel – who, let’s not forget, is just a kid) and boarded the jet with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Why-The-Fuck-Is-Your-Name-So-Long to presumably go back to the mansion. Maybe Chuck-e-Cheese. They must’ve taken off while he was sitting in his stupor. Damn. Wade wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he appreciated Colossus for being steady, and he currently felt like someone pulled the carpet out from under him. The Universe, maybe?  

 _Why do I have to live? What’s left?_  

Wade blinked, looked down at his boots. He had no idea. 

“DP?” Dopinder tapped his shoulder. Wade jumped with a curse. 

“Jesus fucking Christ, don’t sneak up on a guy that just came back from the dead. My heart is still trying to figure out how to beat.” 

“Ah - I’m sorry Mr. Pool, sir. I just figured, well, it is getting late, and there is nothing left for us here except for, well –“ he gestured behind him to the still-sparking mass that was the Juggernaut submerged in water, “ – him, but I don’t think he can fit in the cab with you and Mr. Cable.” He chuckled nervously.

 _Cable._ That time-sliding son of a bitch. 

When Wade didn’t respond, Dopinder exhaled sharply as he rocked on his heels. “I’ll just… go start the car. Get the engine warmed up, you know.” 

Wade waved his hand dismissively, mind clearly elsewhere as he spotted Cable across the yard with his back turned. “Great idea. You do that.”  

Wade straightened his shoulders, purpose blooming bright in his chest carrying his feet forward in brisk steps across the lot. They needed to have a word. An explanation. A friendly, non-threatening, heart-to-heart, if you will.  

Cable didn’t move a muscle as Wade’s trek across the gravel grew closer. Motherfucker didn’t flinch when Wade called his name. Didn’t bat a fucking eye when Wade grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face him, his hands clasping that fucking teddy bear.  

“Cable.”

Wade wasn’t surprised to see Cable’s jaw tighten at his confrontational tone. He closed his eyes with thinly-masked frustration, in a ‘Lord, give me strength’ kind-of way. “It’s Nathan.” 

Wade blinked behind his mask. “O-kay then… we’re going with real names now. Is this our 2nd base?”  

Nathan stared.  

“Hm. Okay. So, Nathan. Nate? Do you do nicknames? Never mind, you don’t strike me as the type.” He flapped his hand around as he spoke, ‘cause he’s an animated fucking guy, but felt stupid and self-aware as he was met with silence and proceeded to clench his fist at his side. “We need to talk.” 

“What about?” 

Fuck. Wade hadn’t thought this far ahead. His thoughts were going somewhere like  _“Why the fuck did you go back in time to bring me back to life, asshole?”._ Y’know what? That’s not bad. Let’s go with that. 

“Why the fuck did you go back in time to bring me back to life, asshole?” 

Cable blinked, but unlike Wade’s blink, it was calm and steady, like Wade was  _slow,_ his cyborg eye glinting with an almost imperceptible whir. “I have unfinished business to attend to.” 

“Cut the shit Ca – I mean, fuck, that’s weird. Nathan. Your name is Nathan, not Cable. What a ‘dad’ name. Speaking of dad shit, how can you be sure your kid is gonna be alright without you?” Nathan scowled and clipped the bear back onto his belt without looking at his hands, but that didn’t mean Wade wasn’t looking. That fucking arm was amazing.  

Wade shook his head slightly and threw his hands up in an attempt at a pacifying gesture. “Look, man. I’m not trying to needle you, but have you ever heard of resting in peace? Am I not allowed the same curtesy?” 

Nathan huffed, and if Wade didn’t know better, he’d say it was amused, but he barreled on. “I mean, I don’t know what kind of shit you’ve got going on after this, but couldn’t you have attended to your ‘unfinished business’ without me?” He was trying to play it cool and unbothered, but it was stressing him the fuck out. 

 _It’s not your time._  

Nathan smiled thinly. “You’re onto something, dickhead. What was I thinking?” He picked up his gun, strapping it to his back with a whir and a click. When Wade didn’t respond, Nathan patted him on the arm sardonically as he strode past him towards Dopinder’s cab. “Good talk”. 

Before Nathan could step out of reach, Wade covered his metal hand with his gloved one, and tried to suppress the tiniest shudder than raced through his body when he felt the bionic fingers flex. 

“You didn’t do me any favors, you know” he hissed. “There’s fucking nothing left for me out here. Sure, I’m making a shit ton of money as a merc for hire, and I’ve got a shit ton of coke with my name on it a 30-minute drive from here –“  

Nathan snorted but Wade continued, “but I was ready to give it up. I was gonna have a family.” He paused, lightened his grip of Nathan’s hand slightly. “Not anymore. There’s nothing left, you son of a bitch.” 

“I’m not going to apologize for that,” Nathan grumbled in his sandpaper-over-gravel fucking  _voice_.  

Wade ground his teeth for a moment and said nothing, then he released his hand and pulled his arm firmly by his side. Nathan’s hand lingered, surreptitiously smoothing the seam that circled his shoulder.  

“But I am sorry about your girl.” 

Wade’s chin jerked up and his wide eyes met Nathan’s shadowed jawline. His lips were pressed shut and his eyes flicked up to meet Wade’s from where they were previously trained on his boots. “I know what it’s like to lose.” 

Wade nodded slowly and exhaled a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. Nathan nodded in return, released Wade’s arm, and walked wordlessly away. 

Wade’s arm was tingling. Nathan’s hand had felt warm, and that surprised him.

He heard Dopinder honk the horn twice, tearing a hole in the thick cloud of ‘how the fuck am I supposed to be feeling right now?’ currently misting up his thoughts. He rolled his shoulders and turned sharply on his heel towards the car. 

* * *

 He sat in the front seat. Nathan in the back. 

They rode in near silence, punctuated only with Dopinder’s Bollywood music. During the first few minutes of the drive, he seemed happy to talk about whatever was going in his life, how happy he was that the mission was a success, what he heard about the weather while he was idling in the lot, what odd projects he was doing around the bar, and who knows what else. Wade wasn’t listening very closely beyond the occasional hum and nod. Dopinder eventually took the hint that something was off and with a glance in the rearview mirror, had cleared his throat and turned the music up a bit and that was that. 

Wade kept his eyes forward until he noticed out of the corner of his eye Dopinder turning his head towards Nathan’s voice. Wade’s eyes flicked up to the mirror and at his angle, he could barely see the flex of Nathan’s jaw and the deep-set wrinkle at the corner of his lip bending before Dopinder faced forward and wordlessly changed the radio station. 

Wade took a pack of cigarettes out of his suit pocket and untucked his mask. It had been a fucking  _day._ He adjusted his seat back so he could put his feet on the dash just as a clap of thunder sounded. 

“It’s gonna be one of those nights, huh, DP?” Dopinder asked quietly, turning on the wipers as the rain suddenly starting pouring. 

Wade made a noncommittal sound of displeasure and clenched the box in his lap. Now he couldn’t crack the fucking window. He sighed and took a cigarette out anyway. He called out to the backseat without turning his head, “You mind if I smoke?” He didn’t wait for Nathan’s response as he reached into the console for his lighter he knew was under the stack of fast food napkins and receipts. “Yep, didn’t think you did.” 

Nathan’s disinterested huff was covered by the sound of the lighter striking. Wade hummed appreciatively as the menthol burned pleasantly against his throat and exhaled, ashing into the passenger’s side cupholder.  

Wade flipped open the personal mirror and angled it so he could peek in the backseat without being too obvious, not that it mattered because Nathan was looking out the window into the rain. The sun had fully set and Nathan’s profile was being lit up only by the lights coming off of buildings through the inky slickness of the terrible weather. Convenience store signs shone off the bridge of his nose, drawing Wade’s eye to the graceful bow of his lip, his deep-set smile lines, the shadows cast by his stubbly brick jaw, the sinews of metal in the side of his neck reflected in the window.

Wade was often thankful his mask hid his eyes because they tended to betray his true feelings, but his exposed, slacked lips around his steadily-burning cigarette weren’t exactly hiding anything. Wade wouldn’t admit it to anyone, not even himself, but in his heart of hearts, he is fascinated with Cable. Nathan. The motherfuckers name is Nathan. Wade couldn’t help but wonder as he flipped up the mirror and took a deep drag what Nathan’s last name was. Ray of sunshine like him was proving to be full of surprises so far, with that goddamn arm and big goddamn gun and glistening goddamn eye.

“Pull over.”

Dopinder sharply turned down the volume dial on the stereo. “What?”

Nathan leaned forward in his seat and his eyes bore into the rearview mirror, meeting Dopinder’s concerned gaze. “I said. Pull over.”

Wade put out his cigarette in the cupholder, adjusted his seat back to its proper upright position, and pulled his mask down over his mouth. Guess this was where he was getting out too. He patted Dopinder on the shoulder to get his attention and nodded to the curb outside the 7-Eleven they were approaching. Dopinder folded his lips into a thin line and maneuvered the cab to the sidewalk.

Wade unbuckled his seatbelt with a bit more flair than was necessary and turned bodily around in his seat. “Alright big guy, my slushie is on you tonight!” He opened the door without waiting to hear Nathan’s reply. He assumed it was equal parts confused and irritated.

He faced the bright window and peered at the awning through the rain, hands on his hips as Nathan ambled out of the car and slammed the door. At the sound, Wade looked over his shoulder and gave Dopinder a two finger wave, and before he knew it, the cab disappeared into the shower.

“What the fuck are you playing at, you oversize Halloween buttplug?” Nathan stepped over the curb to his right with a scowl.

Wade tried for cheery, but came out flat. “Daddy’s gotta stay hydrated.” He patted his stomach. “In case you didn’t notice, I got ripped in half today, and I bet you haven’t eaten in a hot minute either, sugar lump.”

“You’re fucking exhausting, you know that?” Nathan shook his head with a sigh and plowed the door open with his bionic arm. Wade smiled to himself and followed his wet footsteps into the convenience store. Once inside, he headed straight for the ICEE machine. White cherry and coke wouldn’t fix all his problems, but it sure was a start.

Once his cup was filled absolutely to the brim and was threatening to spill over (it did), he dunked in two straws and headed to the shelf Nathan was idling by. “I got one for you in case you wanna sippy sip!” Wade proceeded to lick up the spill that was slipping down the domed lid of his cup. Nathan glanced at him and rolled his eyes as he grabbed a handful of beef jerky and headed toward the counter. Wade hummed in the back of his throat and rushed to swallow as he trotted behind, grabbing a bag of chicharrones as he passed them.

“Where are you staying?” Wade tried for casual as they left the convenience store and approached an alley, the rain cascading at their feet towards the storm drains.

“I have a truck,” Nathan deadpanned.

“Excuse me?”

“I stole a truck.”

They turned the corner and Nathan gestured with little ceremony towards the gray Ford F-250 parked next to a dumpster. The bed of the truck was covered in a blue tarp, and it was impossible to see the interior condition, but Wade found it endlessly amusing that there was a metal ballsack hanging from the hitch.

Wade snorted. “So what, big guy like you has been sleeping in the backseat or some shit?”

Nathan blinked. “So?”

Wade lifted the corner of the tarp carefully as not to disturb what it was protecting, and his eyes widened at the sheer amount of guns that were laid out underneath it. _This bitch is brave, keeping this arsenal virtually out in the open._ He walked around to the driver side window and cupped his hands against the glass. He spied crushed beer cans on the floor, a blanket hung over the passengers seat, and a black duffel bag.

“Sweet setup dude, if you’re going for hobo-chic.”

Nathan eyes that were already narrowed to peer through the rain somehow narrowed further. “Anything else you gotta say, you rotted cunt?”

“You need a real place to live if you’re gonna be sticking around, ya know. A place that’s not a _truck_ next to a _dumpster_ behind a _7-Eleven_.” Wade slapped the roof of the truck with a bang, that woke a homeless man in the recesses of the alley with a startled, drunken shout. “Though it seems you’ve got nice neighbors.” He turned to the bum on the ground and wiggled his fingers in a wave.

Nathan cursed under his breath and elbowed Wade out of the way to unlock the driver’s side door. He climbed in without ceremony and slammed the door, leaving Wade to flounder like a black-and-red leather-bound deer caught in the headlights, only to emerge a moment later with a significantly smaller duffel in hand. When Wade said nothing, Nathan huffed impatiently.

“Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna show me the way?”

Wade chuckled, he couldn’t help it. Nathan looked about as menacing as a wet cat, strands of gray hair plastered to his forehead and suit clinging to his body as he double fisted his groceries and his apparent prized possessions, cyborg eye glinting in the dark. Poor guy.

“Let me show you, show you the way; on the edge of dark, there’s the brightest light,” Wade sang. When he was met with silence, he laughed again. “Thundercat? Do you not have music in the future? Whatever. It’s a fucking bop.”

* * *

“Honey, I’m home!” Wade burst into Al’s apartment, calling out in a sing-song voice with Nathan quietly in tow.

“If you don’t learn to knock, motherfucker, you’re going to wind up shot.” Al set her gun on the sofa cushion with a huff and drew her robe tighter across her chest.

“Yeah, I’m not worried,” Wade cheerily replied as he dunked his ICEE cup into the trash. “Al, meet Nathan. Nathan, Al. Al, Nathan is Cable. You’ve already met but you didn’t know his name was Nathan.”

“Is this the handsome hardbody that was propositioning you earlier, dear?”

“How do you know he’s handsome or a hardbody?”

“He sounded handsome.”

Nathan cracked the smallest smile, blink and Wade would’ve missed it. “I don’t compare to your boy here,” he grumbled, a touch of humor in his voice.

Al laughed, raspy and deep. Wade felt something weird roll down his spine and cleared his throat. He couldn’t figure out for the life of him how to take a compliment, so he deflected. “You should’ve seen me in my heyday, Terminator.”

Nathan huffed and dropped his duffel on the floor.

Wade opened the kitchen cabinet above the sink where Al couldn’t reach, looking for his favorite souvenir mug, and announced, “We’re just stopping by to pick up some of my shit you have been so kindly watching over, my dear Althea.” He paused. “Get it? Watching? You’re blind? I love myself.”

Al didn’t grace that off-color remark with a direct response and asked, ”So, where are you boys staying since last I heard,” she turned her head towards Wade, “your apartment was blown up.”

Wade smirked as he scooped instant coffee into his cup and stirred, faking a hurt tone. “Am I not welcome? What have I ever done to you, besides hide drugs and gratuitous amounts of cash in the floor?” Nathan raised his eyebrows and looked down at his boots. Wade snickered, pulled up his mask and took a sip. Hot, black, and sweet. Just like he liked it.

“You know you are always welcome here,” Al said in a motherly voice.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m welcome or not because I have a key, but I appreciate the sentiment,” Wade reminded. He couldn’t see through her sunglasses, but he could feel the eye-roll from across the room.

“Alright boys,” Al rose slowly from the couch and hobbled slowly towards her bedroom. “This old lady has had a long day. You know where the towels are.”

“Have fun,” Wade called after her. Al flipped him off, and ended up flipping off Nathan, who was hovering by the couch. Wade snorted with laughter. When the door shut with a click, Nathan flipped off the TV and sat down heavily, dropping his bag full of beef fucking jerky on the coffee table.

Wade took off his wet mask and wiped his face on a dishtowel. He needed to get out of his skins, he was soaked to the fucking bone. He leaned against the counter as casually as he could, noting Nathan’s glamorous chrome Super Soaker still attached to his back, sticking up comically against the couch cushions. “Do you always keep that thing on?”

Nathan’s mouth quirked up as he opened one of the jerky packages with his teeth. “Not always.”

Wade nodded, unsure of what to say. He wanted to make a joke about compensating for something, but he understood the need to have a weapon close. He always had a strap on his person, and slept next to a few because, hey, it’s a dangerous neighborhood. But he never in his _life_ had owned a piece that huge and glorious.

He lit another cigarette and straightened up, taking a quick drag before striding to the bathroom. He grabbed two mismatched bath towels and tossed them both to still-seated Nathan, who caught one and got hit in the chest with the other.

“Make yourself at home! I’m gonna take a piss and jerk off, not necessarily in that order, because if I’ve got a lot of nerves left over from all of our buddy-cop action today and if I don’t, I won’t sleep well.”

Nathan arched his scarred eyebrow. “Too much fucking information.”

Wade gave him a thumbs up and let the door swing shut behind him. When it was closed, he leaned his back against it and sank to the floor. Truth be told, he got jitters thinking about being alone with Nathan like this. He was sure he wasn’t going to get killed – that disaster of a cruise ship had fucking sailed – but he couldn’t put his finger on the warm tendrils that curled in his gut when Nathan met his eyes and quirked his lips in the tiniest half smile while he was trying for exasperated. He was proving himself to be a very peculiar man out of combat – quiet, dry, concise, but also tender. Wade thought about Nathan’s thumb caressing his shoulder delicately and how he felt a thread of himself come undone at the gentle touch.

What the fuck was he going to do?


	2. Down and Dirty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your kudos and comments - they mean the world to me!

Early morning was a good time to be at Sister Margaret’s. It was quiet, it was empty, and Wade could talk to Weasel without a shit-for-brains thug putting their two cents where it didn’t fucking belong. He was currently playing the ‘how many fingers of whiskey can I toss back at once without coughing’ game, as Weasel unpacked new bottles to stock the shelves.

“So how did all that shit go down with you and the kid?” Weasel asked.

 Wade swallowed thickly and cleared his throat, alcohol burning its way pleasantly to his stomach. “About as well as you expected, considering Cable didn’t kill Russell, but I died for a minute.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah, just for a minute. Well, only a minute longer than usual. Cable brought me back, went back in time and shit to give me another chance, probably because he can’t live with himself knowing he shot the biggest badass on the country.” Wade shrugged a shoulder and pushed his glass across the counter.

Weasel pursed his lips, eyeballed the glass, and poured three fingers. “Can’t blame him, but kinda weird that he picked you over seeing his kid again, isn’t it?”

“What are you trying to say dude, that I’m not worth it? ‘Cause, you’re onto something, I’m not.”

“No dude, it’s just that he spent all of last week trying to blow your candy ass to kingdom come.”

“Yeah, well, I wish he had.” Wade shook his head and drained the glass again.

“Don’t say that, DP!” Dopinder called from across the bar, broom in hand. “You are a vital member of society, and the world would be a sad place without you.”

Wade looked over his shoulder. “Are you kissing my ass?”

“I take back what I said about wanting to be a contract killer, but I have been thinking about improving my getaway maneuvers, Mr. Pool. Me and my girlfriend watched Baby Driver and it really inspired me to step up my game.” Dopinder hung onto the broom with a wistful look in his eye.

Wade chuckled. “Dream on, you crazy kid.”

Weasel shook his head. “You want the rest of the bottle or d’you want me to mix something?”

Wade shrugged. “I could go for an orange-vodka moment to break up the monotony as a palette cleanser, why not? But I’m coming back to it.”

The front door jingled, and Domino strode in, outfitted in a Rolling Stones shirt and cut-off shorts. She looked extra perky considering the time of day. “Hiya, boys!”

“Hello, Miss Domino!” Dopinder waved animatedly from where he was returning the broom behind the bar. Wade gave her a two-finger salute as she sat next to him and slapped a newspaper onto the countertop.

“You made quite a headline yesterday, Wade.” Domino smoothed the paper and began reading dramatically. “X-Men Save Orphans from Rehabilitation Center Fire – oh wait, that was all me.”

“Yeah, that was all you. I’m not X-Men, I barely got past ‘trainee’.”

 “Yeah but look, they got a sweet picture of all of us!” She pushed the paper towards Wade’s elbow. Right there, in black and white glory, was X-Force strutting towards the camera. Wade’s eyes flickered over their faces and settled on Nathan, two-fisting his machine gun and smiled, but quickly drank to cover it.

“Where is Cable these days anyway?” Domino asked Wade, before miming a drinking motion to Weasel, who slid her a beer.

“DP and Mr. Cable are together,” Dopinder said quietly, trying to mind his own business but clearly in the mood to gossip.

“You two are fucking?” Weasel exclaimed, sliding Wade an obnoxiously colored frosted drink.

“No, we’re not together.” Wade raised his voice. “And we’re not fucking. Definitely not fucking.” Wade pointed his finger sternly to Weasel, taking the glass. “Just living together. Momentarily.”

“Where? You turned your apartment into an ashtray.”

“Al’s.” Wade shrugged and sipped his drink through a straw as nonchalantly as possible. “We can’t say there forever, but it’s working out for now. Dude keeps to himself and Al doesn’t mind, I’m sure.”

“You’re sure?”

“Well, she hasn’t told us to fuck off yet.”

“You’d have to fuck off if you were riding his dick on her couch,” Domino countered.

“I’m not riding anyone’s dick, but you’re riding mine!”

“But you want to ride his?”

“This conversation is over.” Wade pushed his empty glass back across the counter as Domino grimaced at the visual. “Alright Weas, fill’er up.”

Weasel raised an eyebrow and wordlessly filled it to the brim.

“How is he not plastered?” Domino asked with a look of wonder on her face, nursing her beer delicately.

“Healing factor, I bet. He was never a lightweight, but this is somethin’ else,” Weasel mused thoughtfully as Wade chugged it all, then slammed the glass down. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and grimaced at Domino. “Yeah, it’s the healing factor. Can’t get drunk, but it feels good anyway.” He dug the dented skee-ball token out of his shorts and kissed it. “Alright ‘Ness, tell me what to do. Heads says let Cable keep living in his car, tails says find somewhere else for us to live.”

Weasel snorted. “What’s the point when it’s always gonna be tails? You’ve got a bullet through the heads side.”

“Tails, and 20 bucks they’ll be fucking by the end of the month,” said Domino.

Wade flipped it. Tails.

* * *

Nathan was making himself feel right at home in Al’s apartment. It was small, definitely cozy with two grown ass men intruding on the already tight 550 square feet, but it was nice. Homey. Worn carpet, warm walls, mismatched upholstery, handguns tucked everywhere you turned. He got comfortable immediately and had expressed his gratitude to Al for letting him use the couch as a bed on multiple occasions. She had assured him that she felt better knowing there was something between her blind ass and the front door in the event of an emergency, and that was the end of that conversation.

That said, Nathan had quickly discovered that there was virtually nothing to eat. He was currently trying to figure out how to fashion breakfast out of peanut butter, crackers, eggs, his beef jerky and instant coffee while wrapped up from the waist down in a bleach-stained bath towel. He had woken up alone, feeling Wade’s absence like a hole in the head, and decided to take advantage of the hot water while he could. To him, being clean was a luxury he previously could not always afford, being part of a global war in the future and all, so he took his time, washing his salt-and-pepper hair with Al’s floral soap and scrubbing down the best he could to wash off the mothball scent he picked up from the couch.

While he was cracking an egg into a pan to pair with his peanut-butter-cracker sandwich, the front door burst open and there was Wade, leaning against the jamb with nothing short of shock in his bleary eyes. Nate looked down at himself and realized, oh yeah, he was fucking naked.

In the week that they had been living at Al’s, Wade had not once seen the man without a shirt on. He tried to conceal his look of amazement at the way the metal from his arm spread over the shoulder and across Nathan’s pectoral to his hip where it disappeared under the towel, like leaves overtaking an aging building. His eyes dusted over the flesh side of his chest, hairless and pink from his recent exposure to hot water, muscles taught as he rolled his shoulder slightly, nipple erect, up the thick column of his throat and unshaven jaw to his mouth, which was moving.

 “Wade, what the hell are you wearing?” He gestured to Wade’s tie-dye t-shirt, basketball shorts and socks-and-crocs combo with his spatula.

“Clothes! Why are _you_ not wearing anything?” Wade countered too loudly, pointing to Nathan’s towel, which slipped an inch lower as if on queue. “And what the hell are you cooking?”

Nathan turned back to the stove, choosing not to answer one question at a time. “Eggs.”

Wade paused and frowned. “Huh.” His crocs squeaked as he ambled into the kitchen, brushing past Nathan to grab his mug from the sink. While he was close, he reached around to grab one of Nathan’s cracker sandwiches, and Nathan slapped his wrist with the spatula.

“Fuck off, that’s my breakfast.”

Wade hissed and drew his hand back. “Ok, asshole, two things. Number one, a fried egg, crackers and beef jerky isn’t breakfast, it’s pathetic. How can you live like this? Number two, and most importantly, why are you cooking in a towel? Is there a camera crew lurking around to shoot a calendar for sexy cyborgs?

 “I’ve always lived like this, dipshit, and I don’t have spare clothes,” he admitted, his back to Wade as he scraped the eggs out of the pan onto his plate. He chose not to dwell on the sexy comment.

“You’re always welcome to some of mine, tough guy.”

“I don’t want to look like a preteen at bible camp, fuck you. The dryer will be done soon.”

“Can’t say I didn’t offer,” Wade said as he rummaged for another cup of coffee, because while he couldn’t get drunk, he could still get sick, and it seemed that crackers were going to have to do the job of keeping him from spray-painting the walls with vomit. Or Mexican food. Now that’d just about do it.

* * *

 Wade had Nathan tucked away at one of his favorite places but refused to call it his favorite. It had been featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives at some point, so it got a lot of business from all over the country, but due to the fact it was open 24 hours, it was fairly slow at this time of the morning, which was perfect for two guys in full combat gear to grab something resembling breakfast without drawing too much attention. It was comfortable; the tables and chairs well-worn, different ethnic murals decorating each wall, and a jukebox sat in the corner with nothing but 90’s hits and Selena. It was Wade’s home away from home.

The server sat them in a corner booth by a large window, where the neon ‘open’ sign reflected into the dewy mist of the morning, and Wade casually ordered chips and salsa, two greasy burritos, chimichangas, and churros like it was no big deal, while Nathan went the more conservative route and was waiting on his cheese quesadilla and rice.

“So,” Wade spat slightly as he talked, Coca Cola shining on his lips as he sucked through a straw. “We need to get out of Al’s space. The sooner the better, which means we need to find a place to live. Thoughts?”

Nathan sipped his water and swallowed thickly, and Wade watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “We?”

“Well, I assumed ‘we’ because I’m the one with the money in this working relationship,” Wade tipped his head with a smirk that he hoped came across as more confident than he felt. “—- so unless you’ve got thousands of dollars tucked up your cyborg ass for rent in this city, it looks like you’re stuck with me. And I also refuse to let you go back to sleeping in your fucking truck. It’s just sad.”

Nathan grimaced but nodded. “The truck is not ideal, but I’ve been in worse conditions.”

“The future isn’t so bright, huh?”

“It’s an absolute shit show. Being part of the war makes you grateful for the little things. Air conditioning. Running water. A roof over your head, even if it’s a moonroof.” Nathan stirred his water idly with his flesh hand. “This world isn’t so bad, gas prices included.”

Wade scoffed. “Yeah, I bet.” He was going to say something else, but his eyes widened comically as he saw their food arriving over Nathan’s shoulder, and clapped as plate after plate was placed in front of them. Nathan looked at the spread with thinly-masked wonder gleaming in his eye. Wade noticed everything, because he couldn’t take his eyes of Nathan’s face for a fucking second, apparently.

“Do they not have Mexican food in your timeline? This is where it’s _at_ , Nate.” Wade asked, stacking chips in his hand before scooping up salsa. He hummed obscenely as he chewed, and Nathan raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing like this.” He tentatively picked up his quesadilla by the edge, and angled it in his hand, as though he wasn’t sure where to start.

“Just eat it like a piece of pizza!” Wade said through a mouthful of burrito.

The corners of Nathan’s lips turned down into a slight frown before he took a bite, chewing thoroughly with his brows furrowed. Wade wiped salt off his lips with a napkin and watched enraptured, living vicariously through Nathan’s experience.

“Well?”

“Not too bad.”

With a genuine smile, Wade dug in, forgetting everything around him for a few moments as he forked his food like it was his last meal on Earth. Nathan, on the other hand, ate slowly, savoring every bite. They spent a few minutes in silence enjoying their food, and Wade stole glances at Nathan at every chance he got. He decided that he really liked Nathan’s bone structure. His strong brow cast a spectacular shadow against his sharp cheekbones, pronouncing the flexing of his stubbly cheeks as he chewed, and as Nathan’s tongue flicked out over his bottom lip to catch a stray piece of rice, Wade pretended he was looking somewhere in the middle distance because damn.

Before Wade could say a word, the telltale sound of a gunshot ricocheting off metal sounded from outside, then another. “Oh, for fucks sake,” he cursed as he looked over his shoulder out the window. Nathan calmly took another bite of his quesadilla, watching the quiet street. It was quiet for about 10 seconds, until a white van raced by and turned down a distant street with a screech, followed by more gunshots.

“Fuck me, dude, just fuck me hard right in my fucking ass!” Wade picked his mask up from where it was placed on the seat, pulling it over his head roughly. Grabbing a handful of chips in his palm and shoving them in his mouth, he tucked the mask into his suit, quickly flipped through a handful of bills, slapped them on the table and stood. “It’s show time.”

* * *

 They raced out of the restaurant in step. Nathan ran with his gun in his hand to prevent it from bouncing off his back, and Wade kept his pace like a track star, boots slapping against the concrete in a steady drumbeat rhythm.

“We need to stop by the truck,” Nathan huffed.

Wade stopped running. “Are you fucking kidding me? The truck? That’s two blocks from here! Why didn’t you just ---?”

“Because I didn’t think we’d be fighting fucking crime first thing in the fucking morning, you insolent bastard!” Nathan also stopped, gun in one hand as he gestured pointedly to Wade with the other. “Besides, I could’ve sworn you didn’t play the fucking hero!”

Wade sighed with frustration. ‘A trader friend of mine tipped me off the other day about--- you know what? It doesn’t fucking matter! What the hell do you need from the truck?!”

Nathan lips curled into an impatient snarl. “My clips! My shit!”

Wade made a strangled sound between a scream and sigh. “Fine! You’re driving! Fuck all this!”

They turned into the alley and Nathan slid into the front seat of the truck without stopping to catch a breath, while Wade stood outside the truck and shrieked in disbelief, “You left it un-fucking-LOCKED?”

“Get in the fucking car!”

“Ahhhh!” Wade threw up his hands and slid into the passenger’s seat, immediately reaching for his handgun as Nathan turned the engine over and pulled out of the alley with a screech.

As they raced down the road, Nathan was barking out orders of how to load clips into his gun because it wasn’t fucking obvious to Wade at all how weapons from the future worked, and Wade repeatedly shouted back for Nathan to “cool his fucking jets because I’m doing the best I fucking can!” Turns out, Nathan was a good but reckless driver; no regard for traffic, speed limits, or pedestrians, and almost missed their turns as Wade looked up from his hands and shouted “LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, THE FUCKING LEFT!”

As they pulled into the alley, Wade leaned himself bodily out the window and pulled the slide back on his handgun at the six men standing in the shadows, holding a teenage girl in an iron grip near a white van.

“Rise and shine, motherfuckers!” Nate pulled the truck over with a screech as Wade fired a shot at the back window of the van, making the girl in custody scream. She didn’t look a day over thirteen, and Wade tasted bile in the back of his throat and snarled underneath his mask. He didn’t have a single joke to make. He’d had enough of creepy old men preying on fucking kids.

_Vanessa, I hope you’re watching._

Wade’s boots hit the ground as soon as Nathan slammed the door of the truck, and the bullets started raining through the grey light of the morning, whizzing past Wade’s ear, buzzing like flies as they found their target in his shoulder, in his side, in the hood of the truck with metallic thuds. He unsheathed his katanas and went to town, sparring a man wielding a steel pipe as Nathan used his watch to shield himself from the shots fired as he knocked the wind out of a thug with a swift knee to the stomach, and brought his bionic elbow down on the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

They moved gracefully, like dancers. They had done this before and it felt like a routine; practiced, precise, synchronized. Wade sliced and stabbed and strangled like it was second nature, and Nathan watched his back, bringing down thugs with quick jabs without as much as a heavy exhale.

And then there was one.

The thug holding the girl fired his gun at Wade and the bullet went right through Wade’s forehead. When Wade didn’t fall, he cursed, attempted to fire again, and when his gun clicked empty, he flicked open a knife and held it to the girls throat. Wade raised his pistol and aimed without a word.

“One more move, and she gets it,” he spat with an anxious tremor in his voice, backing up against the van.

Nathan smiled darkly from behind Wade and suddenly the man’s hand began trembling. The girl whimpered as the knife wavered away from her neck and up towards the thug’s own head.

“I don’t think so, fuckface.”

Wade’s jaw went slack under his mask because under Nathan’s steely gaze, the thug jammed his own knife through his temple and fell to his knees. Blood gushed from the wound like a waterfall down his dirty cheek and with a choked sound, he collapsed on the ground like a ragdoll.

Wade turned around, eyes wide, gun still in hand. “The hell was that?!”

Nathan bared his teeth in a wolfish grin that made Wade shudder. “Mutant, remember?”

“You show off.” He turned his head to face the van just as the girl raced past him, tears streaming down her face as she disappeared around the corner. “Nice going, you scared her away! Good luck out there, sweetie!” he called after her.

“I saved her fuckin’ life, douchebag.”

“Yeah, and probably gave her PTS-fucking-D,” Wade retorted, slipping the gun back into it’s holster on his suit. He stepped toward the body crumpled on the ground and signed forlornly. “Man, I was really looking forward to ripping him a new one myself, the sick fucker,” he thought aloud, and proceeded to slice the dead man’s knife-wielding arm off with a swift stroke of his katana.

“The hell did you do that for?” said Nate, as he opened the driver’s side door of the truck and climbed in.

Wade slid into the seat next to him. “It made me feel better.”

Nathan snorted with laughter. “Sure.”

* * *

 At the apartment, Wade unloaded his weapons onto the floor behind the sofa, and Nathan sat with his hands around a cup of coffee, taking scalding sips and grimacing as Wade paced. Anxiety was radiating from his body in waves, and Nathan just watched him as he dragged his boots back and forth over the carpet, before suddenly walking briskly to the far end of the apartment.

“I need to, uh, wash my suit. I got shot. Well, I get shot a lot but I got shot in the, uh, in the head.” Wade paused, gesturing to his forehead, where dried blood was crusted above his brow.

Nathan didn’t say a word as Wade turned a corner towards the washing machine. He blew on his coffee and shook his head, his own mind racing. He hadn’t thought about the repercussions that could come from revealing his telekinetic powers. It had quite frankly worn him out, manipulating the thug to kill himself with such force. He didn’t put much energy towards exercising that power as it took extreme amounts of effort, effort that he usually used to stall the spread of the virus that was taking over his body, and if he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t sure that it was even going to _work_. It had been a gamble, but he couldn’t let Wade know that.

He gulped down the contents of the mug with his eyes closed and wiped his mouth on the collar of his shirt. The coffee warmed his throat and spread like lava through his limbs, easing some of the tension that was causing his shoulders to bunch. He sighed and lay back against the couch, mug slipping in his hand.

At the sound of footsteps, Nathan opened his eyes slowly, then blinked quickly and sat up ram-rod straight because Wade was shirtless and pointedly not meeting his eye. His basketball shorts clinging to his slim hips was the only stitch of clothes he had on. Wade was rooted to the spot, visibly uncomfortable, his teeth worrying his lower lip as crossed his arms over his mottled chest and glared, eyes narrowing.

“Taking a good fucking look, huh Nate?” He spoke loudly to cover the slight tremor in his voice.

Nathan said nothing, just set his coffee cup on the table and stood.

“This is what stage four, terminal, fuck-you-and-your-whole-life cancer turned me into — drop-dead sexy eye fucking candy.” Wade took a step back towards the bathroom and laughed bitterly but tried to play it off as a joke. “Bet you knew it when you saw me from the neck up, but your mental images don’t do seeing it in real time fucking justice, huh? Hope you have that cyborg eye insured.”

“Wade…”

Wade’s mouth shut quickly, but his eyes widened as Nathan took the few steps to close the distance between them. He raised his bionic arm and touched his thumb to the scab above Wade’s brow, light as a feather. Wade inhaled sharply through his nose and dropped his eyes.

“Without this body, you wouldn’t have survived that shot, but it’s as if it never happened,” Nathan said, voice low, thumb grazing the healing skin as his index and middle finger splayed on Wade’s temple and cheekbone. “Your cancer saves your life, again and again. Vanessa loved you before this, and she loved you after, and it helped you protect her. You’re not a lesser man because of it.”

Wade swallowed, and Nathan dropped his hand to his side, gesturing between them with his flesh hand. “Besides, nobody’s fucking perfect.”

A beat passed before Wade spoke. “Okay, the hell was that about?”

Nathan frowned. “I’m sorry…?”

“How did you know her n —?”

“You were thinking about her. How she looked at you, how others look at you—”

“What? Woah woah woah, hold the fucking phone!” Wade balked. “You read my fucking MIND?”

Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose with his flesh fingers. “Not exactly.”

“The fuck do you mean, not exactly?!”

“Telepathy and telekinesis are my abilities, dipshit. I can read fucking minds, but yours is… different. Muddy.” He exhaled a long breath. “I can only read certain things, strong emotions from you. I’m not fucking spying on you.”

“You better fucking not be!” Wade turned on his heel, and gripped the bathroom door handle, before turning back around and pointing a stern finger at Nathan. “This conversation isn’t fucking over. You mind-controlled that guy into stabbing himself in the fucking head!”

Nathan shrugged. “There’s nothing else to say.”

“Well I… y’know what? Whatever. Fuck it. Fuck you. I’m taking a shower.” Wade slammed the bathroom door behind him, and Nathan was silent for a few beats before tipping his head back with a bark of raucous laughter.

Wade heard Nathan’s laugh through the door and smiled despite himself. It was a beautiful sound; it snagged in his throat and pealed like a bell, rich and deep and it shot a bolt of electricity straight through Wade that made him dizzy. He wriggled out of his shorts and turned the water on hotter than usual. He let it run in the tub before stepping in, covering himself in the spray.

He exhaled sharply as the water hit his back, hands coming up to brace himself against the tiles as the heat pelted his shoulders and flowed in rivers down his spine.

He was upset. He was confused. He was inconsolably horny.

Wade bent at the waist for his soap, squeezing it into his hand, not bothering with a washcloth as he spread it over his collarbones, traps and pectorals, face tipped up into the shower, water flooding his eyes and pouring into his open mouth. He swallowed and felt the warmth slither through his body, leaving a chalky taste behind. His thumb grazed his nipple and an image flashed in his mind — _Nathan_. Nathan’s hands on his shoulder the week before, Nathan’s fingers on his face just moments ago.

He closed his eyes.

_Nathan’s hands sliding across your obliques, cool metal and warm skin —_

Wade’s hand dropped lower, tracing his ribs and his trembling muscles, then up to his armpit, scrubbing soap into the cavern created by his arm raised against the wall.

_Nathan’s fingers scratching down your spine, nails catching —_

Wade’s head bowed and he brought his hand into the spray, rinsing off the soap to drag his hand over his face, his thumb pressed against the tip of his nose and the center of his parted lips, fingers splayed against his own jawline as he pulled his lower lip down with a shaky exhale.

 _Nathan kissing your neck, inhaling your scent and you smell him, his musk and his sweat and spice, his stubble scratching the column of your throat –_ -

His hand crept around his own neck, flexing his fingers lightly, experimentally, against his windpipe as water dripped off his lashes, then lets his hand fall down his chest.

_Nathan biting, capillaries bursting, bruises blossoming as he applies pressure — holding you flush to his body — squeezing your ass —_

Wade rested his forehead against the tiles, angling himself so water was no longer streaming down his face but down his back, as he spit in his hand and grabbed at his cock, fully hard, pulsing hot and thick and leaking pearls of precum against his abs. He bit his lip and squeezed at the base just to feel before he started stroking himself, exhaling sharply through his nose.

_Nathan manhandling you so you are supported by his arms, thighs wrapped around his waist, kissing you furiously, deeply, anchoring you to his body as he rocked his own hips up against you, hard denim providing glorious friction —_

Wade’s hand sped up, pumping himself with quick flicks of his wrist as he bumped the crown, sliding his thumb over the slit. White spots bloomed behind his eyes and he groaned.

_Nathan’s graying hair falling into his eyes, pulling back to hold your gaze, pupils blown, rough fingers caressing the crack of your ass and breaching you without ceremony —_

Wade whimpered and bucked his hips up into his fist.

_Nathan’s voice low and rough, rumbling like thunder before a storm in your ear instructing you to touch yourself as he fucks into you, coarse and sloppy, your ankle hooked around his thigh, throat exposed with your head tipped back ---_

Faster. Reckless. Breath rattling in his chest as he panted and —

_“You gonna cum for me?” --- His breath hot, teeth snagging your earlobe as he drops his jaw in a broken moan, your furious pace rubbing against his toned stomach ---_

With a bang of his fist against the tile, Wade came in his hand, ears ringing as the spray carried his spunk down the inside of his thigh and into the tub, down the drain. The water was no longer hot, merely lukewarm, and the shower head whined with a sudden change in pressure. Wade looked down at himself, rubbed his fingers together, and moaned brokenly. _Nathan can’t know about this._


	3. Settle for Less

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two things: 1) I'd be nobody without HGTV. Home-making shenanigans are only going to escalate! 2) Nate is starting to catch some feelings, can you tell? He can't.

Wade and Nathan’s life had become predictable. Routine. Not boring in the least, since Wade was getting work and bringing in bank like nobody’s business, but Nathan had somewhat adopted the role of a housewife, in his own way. He kept Al company and did whatever needed to be done around the apartment; he had fixed the kitchen sink when the garbage disposal broke, found extra batteries for the remote so she could turn up the volume on Family Feud without having to walk to the TV, refilled prescriptions, and when Al was asleep and Wade was out, turned on Property Brothers and cleaned their shared weapons, which is what he was doing now while nursing a beer.

Nathan was handy and had a spectacular eye for detail. He sharpened every knife and took every gun apart, lubricated each stiff mechanism, cleaned out the barrels, reloaded them for use, and returned them carefully to where they had been previously resting. He felt responsible for ensuring that their temporary residence was kept in good condition as a sort of thank you to Al for letting them stay, though he knew she wasn’t requiring anything of them. That said, it had been weeks now, and he knew this arrangement wouldn’t last forever.

As if on queue, Wade came in the front door with a bag of takeout in hand, and Al came out of her bedroom with an empty mug.

“Good evening, my lovely housemates!” Wade exclaimed, “I come bearing gifts of Chinese foo---”

“When are you getting the hell out of here?”

“What?”

Al stuck her arm out to feel for obstacles as she made her way to the kitchen. “I said, when are you boys getting the hell out of my apartment?”

Nathan smiled though Al couldn’t see. “We’re working on that, aren’t we Wade?” He made sharp eye contact with Wade, as though requesting for backup, rubbing a cloth over the blade of a hunting knife.

“Yeah, Al, working on it!” Wade said through his teeth with as much cheer as he could muster, making a throat-slicing motion to Nathan as he passed him a carton of fried rice and chopsticks.

“Good, not ‘cause I don’t like you both, but a lady needs her privacy. Can’t be having no gentlemen callers when I’ve got two hitmen sleeping in the living room.” She laughed brightly, and Wade’s mouth dropped open comically wide.

“She did _not_ just tell us that she fucks. She didn’t, right?” Wade stage-whispered to Nathan, who threw up his hands in a ‘don’t look at me’ gesture.

“Now Wade, I’m no spring chicken, but I’ve still got some moves!”

“I’m going to pretend you’re not telling me that Nate and I are cock-blocking you. We’re looking at places, okay? We’re looking!”

“Glad to hear it,” said Al, as she ambled back to her room and shut the door.

Wade faced the closed door with hands on his hips, then faced Nathan. “She fucks, and I need to bleach my brain.”

“Must be easy. Doesn’t have to look at the guy, do anything, just lay there and wave a gun around when it’s time for him to go.”

Wade snorted. “Yeah, she’s not a cuddler.”

Nathan smirked. “So, have you been looking? For a place?”

Wade pursed his lips. “I’ve been meaning to get around to it. Figured what’s the rush, it’s not like _we’re_ screwing on the couch.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow. Wade cleared his throat.

“I’ll find something.”

“Cool. When was the last time you had a vegetable?” Nathan said as he casually poked around the rice box with chopsticks.

“What?”

“A vegetable. Something green. Fibrous. Vitamin-rich. Not greasy.”

At Wade’s silence, he chuckled and stood, setting the food on the corner table next to the sofa. “You need to eat better.” He shrugged on a leather jacket that was folded over the cushions. “I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?” Wade asked incredulously.

“Around the corner. Won’t be long.”

When the door shut with a quiet thud, Wade sat down on the sofa in Nathan’s spot and scoffed to himself. Vegetables. He reached for Nathan’s discarded rice box and dug into it himself. When Nathan returned approximately 30 minutes later, all the takeout was finished, and Wade was nursing the last bottle in the six pack Nathan stowed behind the couch. He raised his drink as a salutation over the chatter coming from the TV.

“What’d you get? Better not be fuckin’ salad.”

Nathan raised the grocery bags in his arms as he strode to the kitchen and began unpacking. “You’ll see.”

After listening to a conspicuous amount of rustling coming from the kitchen, Wade couldn’t hold back his curiosity and made his way to the kitchen, hands clasped behind his back, watching Nathan deftly chop cabbage and potatoes, flesh hand wielding the knife and bionic hand steading the produce. Wade wasn’t much of a cook himself, so maybe he tended to be easily impressed by the culinary skills of others, but he was entranced by the way Nathan moved things from board to pan like he could do it in his sleep. Wade leaned against the counter opposite the stove and watched him slice smoked sausage and liberally spice the dish, brows set with concentration, eyes crinkling as the pan sizzled. Nathan grabbed a fresh beer from the fridge after he put the lid on to let the dish cook through and raised it in a silent toast to Wade. Wade smiled, he couldn’t help it, and clinked his bottle against it.

When the food was ready, Nathan grabbed two paper plates and spooned out a large portion for himself, and when Wade nodded enthusiastically, gave him the same portion. The cabbage was had browned and gone soft, the potatoes and sausages charred and cut cleanly with the side of their plastic forks, and Wade couldn’t help but hum as he took the first bite. Nathan smiled warmly as Wade tucked in.

“I didn’t expect you to be —-“

“This hungry even though I ate both of our takeout dinners? Fast metabolism, honey bunches. This is so fucking good,” said Wade, hand covering his mouth full of food.

“Something I used to cook for my daughter,” Nathan said humbly, taking a bite himself.

Wade nodded and continued eating, eyes flickering up to watch Nathan’s face as he chewed, and when Nathan caught his eye, he held it until Nathan’s mouth quirked up into a crooked half smile and Wade felt heat rise to his cheeks. _He did this for his daughter, now he’s doing it for me._

* * *

“How are you with real estate?”

“Am I familiar with the concept of real estate? Yes. Am I a real estate fucking agent? No.”   

“I need to buy a house, Weas.”

Weasel snorted. “Yeah, for you and who?”

Wade tapped his fingers on the bar counter. “Nathan.”

“Who the fuck is Nathan?”

“Cable, dipshit.”

“How was I supposed to know?!” Weasel exclaimed. “Thought you said you two were just a temporary thing. Now you’re getting fully domestic? Gonna give him a promise ring?”

“He’s got a truck that sits in the alley next to Al’s building. We need a garage. It’s a miracle the arsenal he keeps in the bed haven’t been stolen yet. If I were the hobo that sleeps out there, I’d have hocked them all and gotten a fucking condo.” Wade rubbed at his nose. “Did you know he can read minds? ‘Cause he can. He also got the guy you tipped me off about, y’know, the attempted kidnapping a couple weeks back? Yeah, he got that guy to stab himself in the fucking head.”

Weasel’s eyes went wide. “So why do you want to live with him? Dude could shish-kebab you with his eyes closed!”

“I gotta keep an eye on him, ‘s the least I can do since he single-handedly turned my life around. Ha. Single-handedly. He’s got one real hand.”

“You sure its cause you don’t wanna fuck him?”

“All of a sudden I don’t understand English.”

Weasel scoffed. Wade lay his chest on the bar and knitted his fingers together in a begging motion. “Please, I don’t know how to even start looking into this shit. And speaking of fucking, Al wants to get laid and she’s this close to kicking us out.”

“You’re joking.”

“She practically told us what her favorite position was.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

* * *

Nathan pulled up to the curb and parked with a jerk, one hand resting on the gear shift and the other pointing towards the property that was backlit by the sunset. “This is it?”

Wade looked down at the note in his hands where Weasel had scrawled the address in red pen. “Think so. Weasel said he’d be here to give us the key – yep, that’s his car in the driveway.”

They exited the truck and walked up the path to meet the realtor, who was standing by his car tapping on his smartphone. When their footsteps drew closer, he tucked it away into his suit pocket and smiled warmly. “You must be my buyers!”

“Nice to meet you.” Wade shook his hand firmly. “What’s the deal?”

“I’ll make this nice and easy, gentlemen. The man who contacted me in your stead,” he paused as he opened his briefcase on the hood of the car, “assured me you would be paying in cash?”

“That’s right.”

“I don’t usually take this route with potential buyers, but I’ve had this property on my hands for far too long.” The realtor rifled through documents, talking loudly. “It’s a good neighborhood; quiet, low rate of crime activity, zoned to a reputable independent school district and all, but the house was vacated in the late 70s and just wouldn’t sell. Now, I’m no contractor, but in my opinion, it needs some work, and on such short notice, we haven’t had anyone come in to fix–”

“That won’t be an issue,” said Nathan, arms crossed over his chest, the leather of his jacket bunching at his elbows, making his biceps look massive. Wade screamed internally because with this posture, Nate looked like his personal bodyguard, or at the very least the leader of a motorbike group, especially with his gloves on.

“Very well. I’ll just need you to sign these before I can accept your payment…” the realtor pulled a slick pen from his breast pocket and passed Wade a clipboard. After signing every marked line, Wade unfolded a paper with the address to a storage facility on it and attached it to the clipboard. The realtor skimmed the documents and nodded with a small smile.

“It’s all there?”

“All there.”

He pressed the front door key in Wade’s hand. “Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Wilson.”

Wade nodded, shook his hand once more, and stepped aside as the realtor climbed into his car and drove away. Nathan watched him go silently before turning to Wade. “You put the down payment for this house in a self-storage unit?”

“What, did you think I was gonna roll up here with a suitcase of cash in front of our new neighbors and God in plain sight on a Tuesday?”

Nathan stared for a moment, then shook his head with a chuckle.

Wade walked up the sidewalk, rolling the key around his finger excitedly. “Well, let’s check it out!” He slid the key into the lock, and when the door got stuck in the jamb, he pushed it open with his shoulder like a quarterback. “Gotta fix that…” he mumbled, then swung the door wide open. He stood silently for a moment, taking in the space.

“This is a fucking dump.”

“No, we can work with this.” Nathan brushed by him, crossing the threshold to survey the main area. “It’s not so bad.”

“Look at the fucking floor.”

“What about it?”

“Are you fucking joking? I can’t tell if this supposed to be fucking cowhide printed carpet or if it’s water damage and shit-stains, Nate. No wonder Weas got ahold of this joint in less than a week.”

“So I’ll rip up the carpet,” Nathan said, arms still crossed but tone pleasant and unbothered.

“Hold your horses, Jonathan Scott. That might not be the only issue here. They said this house was last inhabited in the fucking 70’s. What if there are roaches and rats in the walls? What if we go into the bathroom and there’s no showerhead? The water might not even be turned on! Hold on,” Wade paused and flicked the light switch, and to his relief, the power came on. “Okay, if we have electricity, we probably have water.”

“Of course they’d turn the electricity and water on if the house was being sold, idiot. The air conditioning has been on this entire time and you haven’t noticed.”

“I bet there are more extra special secret surprises waiting for us…” Wade walked ahead into the house and turned a corner to look into a bathroom. “Oh god, these tiles are a sin against nature!”

“But is there a shower head?” Nate didn’t even try to temper his patronizing tone.

“Yes, there’s a fucking shower head. There’s only one shower, though. The other bathroom only has a tub and a toilet,” said Wade as he moved around the house.

Nathan chuckled and followed behind him at a leisurely pace. When he found Wade standing in the middle of what must be the master bedroom, he leaned his shoulder against the door and ran a hand through his hair. “We sharing a bed too?”

Wade turned around and tried on a flirtatious grin. “Only if you get cold at night, daddy.” At Nathan’s raised eyebrow, Wade’s mouth flatlined. “Too much?”

Nathan’s lips quirked. “So there is another bedroom?”

“On the other side of this wall, and another around the corner, so if you bring someone over to bone, I won’t have to hear it like we’re roommates in a college dorm, God bless.”

“I’m gonna get the mattresses from the truck,” said Nathan after a beat, turning on his heel to leave the room. Wade watching him go and as soon as he heard the front door close, he cursed himself. _What the fuck are you thinking? Subtlety is a talent and a gift, Wade Wilson, and you don’t have it. Bend over for him on the kitchen counter right now, why don’t ya?_ He shuddered. _Tempting._

His internal monologue was interrupted by Nathan calling out to him. “Could use a little help, Wade!”

Wade smacked himself in the face and met him at the door, taking the corner of the mattress and walking backwards to drop it in the bedroom.

“We need appliances… and furniture…” Wade grumbled, trying not to trip over his own feet as Nathan peered around the edge of the mattress to meet his eye.

“One day at a time, shit-for-brains.”

“We haven’t even looked in the backyard yet, oh my god, I don’t even want to think about landscaping —”

“Wade, chill the fuck out,” Nathan huffed, lowering his side of the mattress to the floor and standing up straight. “We’ll get a fucking fridge and a fucking couch and clean fucking carpet and a barbecue grill and, fuck, a stand for your katanas! Anything you fucking want, provided the world doesn’t end overnight.” The late day sun coming in through the window made his flesh eye glow a glorious honey color, and Wade felt the air in his lungs rush out like God had squeezed his sides like an accordion. “It’s our first night, let’s take a deep fucking breath, get our shit out of the truck, and worry about designing your forever fucking home in the morning.”

Wade smiled, he couldn’t help it. “Have anyone ever told you it’s hot when you get all authoritative?”

Nathan smiled back, flashing teeth. “You’d be the first. Let’s get the other mattress.”

* * *

It took about an hour for them to get settled. Wade didn’t stop bitching for a second about all the things they were missing every second he tried to do something. After he brought in his bags – which held nothing but his aesthetically displeasing wardrobe, a bath towel he stole from Al, toiletries, ten thousand dollars in cash wrapped in rubber bands, and weapons – he went about his business, taking the first shower and calling out to Nathan about every complaint he had. Nathan could only laugh after Wade’s third remark about the poor water pressure rang through the house, and began making notes of what needed fixing, which was only made funnier when Wade emerged from the bathroom clad in Hello Kitty pajama pants, grumpy as all hell with his towel around his neck and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

“It’s cold.”

“Why are you making that pussy face? Dry off,” Nathan said from his perch on his made-up mattress.

“Pussy face? Fuck you. The water barely got hotter than room temperature. You need to check the heater, it’s probably fucked up,” Wade grouched, taking a drag and walking to his chosen bedroom. “I wonder why the realtor was surprised when no one wanted to buy this fucking place when it’s in shambles.”

“No self-respecting real estate agent is gonna sell an upstanding property to an undead hitman who operates exclusively with dirty money,” Nathan reminded.

Wade imitated a buzzer sound as he unfolded a sheet with a whipping motion to lay it on his mattress. “EHHH, incorrect! I have a good credit score, I just save my cards for special occasions.”

“Like?”

Wade walked back into the hall and waved his cigarette in an infinity motion as he thought for a moment and shrugged. “I don’t know, plane tickets? Hotel reservations? Bar tabs?”

"My point is –” Nathan pressed, “we got what we could get. Don’t be a little bitch.”

“Yeah yeah, I know, shut up,” Wade sank heavily to the floor opposite Nathan’s room, knees tucked up to his chest. “It’s nice to have a place,” he said quietly after a moment. “Be out on our own, away from everything, y’know? We can breathe out here.”

Nathan smiled at Wade’s inclusive language. “Yeah, Wade.”

Wade exhaled heavily and ashed his cigarette onto the carpet. At Nathan’s raised eyebrow, he shrugged and said quietly, “If you’re ripping up this shit, one more stain doesn’t matter right?” He rolled his shoulders and let the towel fall to the side, head knocking against the wall. He took a deep drag and let it out slowly, smoke curling thick and white in the dark space. Nathan watched him with hooded eyes, the cherry of the cigarette glowing with life in the sooty dusk that had fallen when they weren’t paying attention, and he didn’t know it, but Wade was watching him back, his posture relaxed as the cigarette burned down, embers tumbling off the edge with every tap of his nimble fingers.

When it burned down to the filter, Wade smothered it in the carpet and stood in one smooth motion. Nathan didn’t move from his slouch against the wall as to not cut off the beam of moonlight that shone on Wade’s bare chest.

“’M gonna call it a night,” Wade said quietly, voice thick and raspy.

“Sleep well,” Nathan replied, tipping his chin in a nod that he wasn’t sure Wade could see.

Wade padded to the next room and when Nathan didn’t hear the door click closed, he sighed and lay flat on his back on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling fan spinning in lazy circles. The energy between himself and Wade was peculiar to him – it was easy, it was safe, but it was also dangerous. He hadn’t looked at anyone like he looked at Wade in a long time. Something about Wade’s eyes drew him in, made him lose himself, made it easy to maintain contact and ache to be closer. He saw it like a fishing line, hook caught deep in the hard muscle of his chest with the tail end wrapped around Wade’s finger; often loose, just reminding him that they were in this mess together, but sometimes pulled taut, making him want to lean forward and fall into the essence of this man he saved, this man who was changing and opening up right before his eyes.

Nathan allowed himself a small smile in the dark, dwelling on the gentle warmth that was radiating in his chest until he felt a sharp pain, like a pinprick. He lay very still and felt it bloom like a stain on fabric, raw hurt and anguish and sadness cutting through the peace that had just settled on his mind like dust. It wavered, thrumming with negative energy and Nathan saw images; a knife being thrown, missing its target — a woman collapsed like a puppet with cut strings — pouring rain and hot blood soaking worn wood —

“Oh, Wade…” he said softly, just to himself, closing his eyes as tears prickled in the corners. _He must be dreaming_. It rolled through the drywall like a tide and Nathan exhaled at the ceiling, heart heavy as Wade’s pain became his own, and only drifted to sleep once the agony faded away into cicada songs.


	4. Two Birds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thank you all so much for your lovely comments! I often doubt my work for many reasons and your feedback and positivity about the story and where its headed inspire me to keep it going. Cookies for everyone! Now, about the chapter. Get ready for some feelings! I definitely had some while I was writing. P.S. I did about 5 minutes of research about Nate’s wife’s name and didn’t find anything, so I pulled the name Alana out of my ass. I also did about 5 minutes of research on whether or not Home Depot sold fridges, and it turns out they do.

To Wade, the sounds of the city were like white noise, a constant mellow hum that enveloped him and made him feel normal. The suburbs, in comparison, made him feel like he was the only person alive. There wasn’t nearly enough traffic coming down the winding street at night to lull him to sleep, but the sounds of wildlife were new and pleasant, reminding him of childhood. He woke to the birds chirping and sighed, exhaustion weighing down his limbs, and rolling over to wedge his forearm under his pillow to go back to sleep when a thunderous knock rang through the house.

Wade sat up completely straight and reached for the handgun he set on the floor the night before. The knocking didn’t cease as he pulled on a random shirt and crept through the house towards the front door.

“Open up, Wade! It’s me!”

Wade made an incredulous exasperated sound and didn’t put the gun down as he wretched the door open. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Good morning, Wade!” Colossus beamed, his baritone voice booming cheerfully as he clapped Wade on the shoulder, ignoring the weapon in his hand. “I have housewarming gift for you and Cable.”

“Me and C—? Hang on a sec, who the fuck told you I live here? Do you know what time it is?”

“Your friend Weasel spoke to taxi driver, who spoke to Domino, who spoke to me! Why didn’t you tell me you have a home? Friends stay updated.”

“We just got in last night!” Wade tucked the gun into the back of his pajama pants and smiled as cordially as he could. “I would’ve told you eventually, sweetheart, I swear —”

“No matter, Wade. We come with gifts!” Colossus turned around and whistled through his teeth. It was only then Wade noticed the fucking jet in his driveway.

“We? Who’s the fuck is ‘we’? Oh, you’ve gotta be shitting me,” exclaimed Wade as Negasonic Teenage Warhead walked down the ramp with a cardboard box in her arms. She didn’t greet him beyond telling him to move out of the way once she reached the doorstep, and he threw his hands up in a pacifying gesture and stepped aside.  
  
“Come on, Wade! We move sofa together!” Colossus grabbed Wade’s wrist and he let out a completely undignified squeal of protest as he got dragged to the jet.

“Oh fuck no, it’s one thing to show up to a guy’s house unannounced, it’s another to force him into manual labor, it’s too early for this shit – Nate!” Wade called back to the house at Nate standing on the porch in sweatpants and a hoodie. “I’m being held against my will! Tell Al I love her!”

“Right,” Nate said curtly, straightening the hem of his hoodie. “Morning, Colossus. This is quite a surprise.”

“Hello Cable, we have furniture for your home! Lots of boxes to move, Wade will help. But first, new sofa for you.” Colossus clapped his hands and gestured inside the jet. “Four hands good, but six hands better.”

“I’m going on a run,” Nathan announced to Wade, who was looking at him with mild panic in his eyes like ‘you’re really gonna leave me alone right now?’. He nodded towards Colossus with a small smile. “Thank you for your generosity.”

“No trouble, no trouble! We are glad to help!” Colossus said with a smile.

“Speak for yourself,” Negasonic mumbled as she bumped Nathan’s elbow on her way to get more boxes from the jet.

Nathan let out an amused huff as he watched Colossus lift one end of the sofa with ease, leaving Wade to grunt and struggle with the other end. He shook his head, waved his goodbye with two fingers as he tapped his shoe against the porch, and set off down the sidewalk into the street.

It was a beautiful day. The sun had been up for less than an hour and the air smelled fresh and dewy, clean and light like Nathan had never experienced, or couldn’t remember breathing in. The smog of the inner city was closer to the conditions of his timeline, and he found it the sweet smell of suburbia disorienting, but pleasant. He could taste life around him as his feet pounded the asphalt, observing his new neighborhood pass by as he kept his brisk jogging pace. He wasn’t overexerting himself in the slightest, but the morning heat was enough to make sweat pool at the base of his spine, at the backs of his knees, under his armpits and it felt right. He was never opposed to working up a sweat. In fact, he rather enjoyed it, and running helped him feel connected to his surroundings, as he often got lost in the sauce of his shitstorm of a life. Always engaged, never unplugged, though he had a feeling that would change now that he had moved out with Wade.

Wade. Nathan picked up the pace and exhaled sharply through his nose, arms loose by his sides as he turned the corner down an unfamiliar, tree-lined street. The sidewalk was covered in lawn clippings and he was overwhelmed by the sharp smell, so much so that he slowed to walk, and stopped when the grass got stuck to the sole of his shoes. He reached down to wipe off the wet blades and when one got caught on his finger, he stood up straight and rubbed it between his metal thumb and index finger as gently as he could; testing its strength, how much it would bend, what pressure it could bear before it tore. With a slight pinch, barely exerting effort, the blade ripped cleanly down the middle as if cut with a knife, and the corner of his lip curved into a small smile. Since the day Hope was born, he had to relearn delicacy; how to tread lightly and repurpose his brute force towards more tender subjects and practice humanity, a big task for someone being slowly consumed by machine parts. It certainly seemed there was still some work to do in that department.

 _Maybe_ _Wade_ _could_ –

A dog’s rough bark jerked Nathan out of his thoughts and he looked up to see a woman out running, the animal keeping pace with her. He stepped off the curb into the side of the street out of their way, and with a slight shake of his head, Nate took off jogging again. His heart was pounding steadily in his chest and he wasn’t sure if it was the exercise or his thoughts of Wade, but he felt a slight heat rise to his cheeks as he contemplated the fact, and that pretty much answered the question for him.

He didn’t consider himself the kind of man to quickly develop feelings towards someone unless they were negative, and Nathan knew that’s where he started with Wade, as he viewed him as just an obstacle he needed to eliminate to complete his mission. A mouthy, obnoxious, inappropriately charming obstacle. Meeting him privately (if you can call the audience made up of Weasel, Al, Domino and Dopinder private) was a necessary step to reach his goal, but seeing Wade without his mask, looking him in the eye, reading his expressions and his colorful emotive bursts of thought piqued his interest, tugged at his spirit in a profoundly moving way.

Wade did remind him of his wife, it was true, but at the same time, Wade was so different from Alana in the way that he was so sharp on his feet – witty to a fault, wielding his humor like a sword – while his eyes utterly betrayed him, revealing his anxieties and insecurities, stripping him bare as a man that puts up walls and bandages his hurt with easy jokes because it’s less heartbreaking than facing his reality. What a reality – outliving the ones you love and being unable to join them in the peaceful paradise of Eternity’s Waiting Room, where the temperature is just right, the magazines are always new, and the TV programs hold your attention until you get to meet God or the end of time, whichever comes first, and no matter what Wade does, once he parks his car in the lot, he can’t get out. It broke Nathan’s heart seeing how ready he was to die, his chronic condition catching up to him only to be punctuated by his bullet in one fell swoop, releasing him from the captivity his flesh prison created. What a curse, to be torn apart only to be knit back together against your will, being forced to exist.

_I want to take care of you because despite how you present yourself, you’re fragile. Your death wish was desperate, and I want to prove to you that life is worth living when you’re with the right people. I didn’t make a mistake with you, I want to show you what it can be like, how you can come back from the rug being ripped out from under you. Let me catch you._

Nathan blinked away sweat that was dripping in his eyes and swallowed around the tightness in his throat.

_I’m not just helping you, idiot. You’re helping me. You’re giving me purpose and every day I find you simultaneously more endearing and more insufferable, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, you thick-headed, egotistical, incomprehensibly likable fucking moron._

Nathan laughed wetly to himself, breath catching as he dabbed at his eyes with the corner of his hoodie sleeve, rounded the cul-de-sac, and headed back down the road towards home.

_Careful Nate, or people might think you’ve gone totally soft._

When he arrived back home, he was surprised to see that the jet was no longer in his driveway. He opened the front door and called for Wade, only to find him lying flat on his back with his eyes closed in the living room, covered in sweat, surrounded by furniture and stacked boxes, the ceiling fan spinning lazily and a cigarette burning between his fingers.

“Our house looks like a home now,” Nathan commented, slipping off his shoes and setting them to the side of their new coat hanger.

Wade hummed in agreement, taking a deep drag from his cigarette and letting the smoke spill from his lips, thick and fluid like syrup, and said nothing.

Nathan watched him for a moment, a smile playing at his lips. “You, on the other hand, look like roadkill.”

Wade cracked open one eye, his occupied hand resting against his forehead, making him look like a dramatic classic film star. “I’m resting, asshole,” he said without much malice. “You left me here to do all the hard fuckin’ work. Got fuckin… bedframes, tables and chairs, so many chairs and they aren’t IKEA chairs either. Genuine leather. That’s what you get when you have X-Men friends in high places, I tell you what. Wore me the fuck out.”

Nathan chuckled, and Wade smiled back at him. “Coupla things we don’t have. Don’t have pots and pans, no appliances, no cleaning supplies, no linens – bed, bath or otherwise, no food, fuck...” Wade sat up on his elbows and perched the cigarette in the corner of his mouth. “Look at us, we’ve got ourselves a dollhouse. It looks like it’s inhabitable until you put people in it, then you realize all they can do is sit around and look pretty.” He gestured to Nathan broadly with a flirtatious smirk. “And you are very pretty, a sight for sore eyes.”

Nathan looked down at himself, and back at Wade incredulously, who waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “It’s mighty warm out to be running in a sweatshirt, Nate. Thought you’d be the type to exercise in something more _comfortable_.”

“I have a cybernetic arm, in case you forgot.” He rolled up his sleeves to his elbows and crossed them for emphasis. “I wasn’t in the mood to flash the neighbors as the new mutant on the block.”

“God forbid they mistake you for Bucky Barnes, but silver fox like you jogging the streets shirtless would’ve been such a power move for all the single moms on this side of the city,” Wade smiled wistfully, looking off into the distance until he caught Nathan’s eye and snorted. “I’m just fuckin’ with ya, don’t sweat it. First day in the ‘hood probably isn’t the best time to find out who’s got a machine fetish.”

“Do you even hear yourself right now?”

“Not to abruptly change the subject, but I’m hungry, and you can’t cook for me when there’s no food for you to cook with.” Nate scoffed as Wade rose to his feet. “Let’s get changed and hit the streets. I’m thinking Target.”

* * *

 “What’s your favorite color?”

“Excuse me?”

Wade held two bath towels out in his arms like weights on a scale. “I took you for a cool-tones kind of guy, but I could be wrong. Blues or reds?”

Nathan frowned, considering his options. “Blues, but gray is better.”

Wade snorted. “Of course you’d say that, you’re an emo.” He set both towels in the cart and grabbed two more of each. “I like reds myself. Fiery. Spicy. It makes me feel awake and alive. Only sad people like blues.”

“Blues are calming. Who the hell has a red color scheme in a bathroom?”

“Guy Fieri, probably.”

Wade brushed past him with the cart, grabbing gray hand towels and shaking them in a ‘please acknowledge the sacrifice I am making for you’ way then left the aisle, leaving Nathan behind to mumble “Guy Fieri?” to himself.

“Now what about toilet seat covers…”

“Wade, what the fuck is a toilet seat cover?”

They circled the store in this fashion, arguing over the smallest, silliest things. Wade found it endlessly amusing that Nathan was so practical, and Nathan found it irritating that Wade had something to say about everything. Wade fancied one line of cookware over another, and Nathan would counter that “your opinion doesn’t fucking matter because you don’t fucking cook!” and that would be that, until they got to cleaning supplies and the argument would start all over again. This carried on until they reached the bedding section and Nathan brought up the very good point that they couldn’t stick to an aesthetic when the walls weren’t even painted, and Wade comically stopped in his tracks, called him a son of a bitch, paid at self-checkout, and demanded that they floor it to Home Depot.

When they pulled into the parking lot, Wade unclipped his seatbelt with fervor previously unseen, and looked Nathan right in the eye as he said seriously, “This is a hardware store. Anything you can imagine you want to fix about a house, you can get it here. Don’t go batshit fucking crazy in front of me once we get in there.”

Nathan snorted. “I’m fucking cool, okay? You chill the fuck out.”

Once in the store, Nathan tried to conceal it, but he was taken aback by the sheer height of the shelves and the sheer number of products that could be used towards home improvement. Wade watched him out of the corner of his eye as they selected paint for the main areas of the house, and Nate’s quiet awe at the array of colors made him smile. He spent 15 minutes comparing swatches and asking attendants for details about finish, and Wade had learned how to read him well enough to tell that he was positively beaming when he walked away from that section of the shop double-fisting four cans.

“We have to come back, Wade. This isn’t enough for all the rooms,” he said, lifting the cans like he was lifting weights so Wade could see them.

Wade shook his head good-naturedly. The spark in Nate’s eyes was setting him on fire, and his excitement was contagious. “You can always come without me, you big lug. It’s a good thing we have a truck, something tells me you’re gonna keep it full.”

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” Nathan said matter-of-factly. He looked over Wade’s shoulder and his eyes widened ever so slightly as he read the sign for kitchen appliances. Wade followed his gaze and laughed before Nathan said another word. “I like the way you think. Can’t buy food if we don’t have a fridge. C’mon.”  
  
As it turned out, Nate was the kind of guy who knows exactly what he wants and how he wants it. They weren’t in that corner of the store for more than ten seconds before he was handing Wade the paint cans and approaching a store associate. Wade stood back and watched them talk, Nathan gesturing with his hands and the attendant leading him to the model he was after. He chuckled as Nate opened doors, poked around, asked questions Wade couldn’t hear himself, and couldn’t fight the smile that was resting on his face when Nathan approached him with a microwave in his arms. At Wade’s surprised look, he said “They are having a deal on all household appliances. Our fridge, washing machine and dryer will be delivered later today as well.”

Wade’s open mouth twisted into a grin. “I leave you alone for two seconds and you’re crossing every box off the checklist?”

“We’re not killing two birds with one stone, Wilson. We’re taking out the whole flock.”

Wade’s head tipped back with laughter.

* * *

Once home, Nathan put it upon himself to rearrange all the furniture that Colossus and Wade had to meticulously placed in the front rooms, lay down tarp and tape, and began painting the walls while the Home Depot people delivered and installed their appliances. They had arrived not long after Wade and Nathan got home themselves, and Nathan was more than happy to get as much work done as possible before the sun set. Wade caught the delivery men as he was leaving to go back to the supermarket (“We never got our groceries, jackass”) and Nathan waved him off to get whatever he wanted to eat. He didn’t say anything about the fact Wade had changed out of civilian clothes and was dressed in his combat suit sans mask, and Wade didn’t say anything about it either, so Nathan let it be. Wade’s business was not his business unless Wade made it so.

Nathan had just finished painting the yellowed walls of the living room a crisp white when the delivery men ambled their way to the front of the house, announcing that everything was all set. Nate shook their hands and thanked them for their service and let them see themselves out as he made his way into the kitchen. There wasn’t a competition for ugliest room in the house, but if there were, the kitchen was second only to the master bathroom. The countertops were a horrid off-white vinyl which matched the cracked tiles underfoot, the cabinets were an awful glossy fake wood that were all stiff on their hinges, the stove was terrifically dated and Nathan didn’t even want to look in the connected oven in case there was a full-blown rats nest resting on the racks. All of that next to the splendor of his stainless steel fridge with French doors and a pull-out freezer made him laugh. He certainly had his work cut out for him. He cracked open a beer and drained it in one long drink, crushed it against the counter and sighed heavily, deciding he’d paint after he remodeled the room completely. He was comfortable in two environments; a battlefield and a kitchen, and he’d be damned if he couldn’t get granite countertops and a 6 burner stovetop as a treat for himself.

He stripped on his way through the house, discarding his outer clothes as he searched for Wade’s laundry (he didn’t have to look very hard), and by the time he made it to their designated laundry room, he was stark naked. He threw his jogging outfit and the clothes he wore on their errands into the machine without much thought but hesitated as he picked up Wade’s shirt. It was plain gray with a faded sports team logo on the front, the size tag snipped out of the back of the neck, and it felt soft under Nathan’s fingers. Before he thought better of it, he raised the fabric to his nose and inhaled deeply, bionic hand resting on the lip of the washing machine steadying him. He smelled Wade’s sweat, stale deodorant, faint traces of fabric softener and underneath it all, musk that sent a shiver down Nate’s spine. He exhaled shakily and looked down at himself and wasn’t at all surprised to see that his cock had taken some interest. He was half hard just from smelling Wade’s dirty laundry. With a tsk-ing sound, he tossed the shirt in with the rest of the clothes and started the load.

 _Dear_ _God, I’m fucked._


	5. Solidarité

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm never going to stop thanking you guys for your kudos and comments. It's because of you I'm up past my bedtime to finish this chapter even though I have to work in the morning. It’s a shorter one but get ready for some emotional vulnerability from the boys! (Song rec for tonight's dinner scene: I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good by the Oscar Peterson Trio)

Wade was quick to find out that he was very similar to Nathan in ways that he didn’t expect, one being that Nathan was a man of his word and would stop at nothing to accomplish something he set his mind to. Wade could relate but was still taken aback by the enthusiasm Nathan put into things. Nothing he ever did was half-assed. Maybe it was Wade’s fault for complaining so much when they first settled in the house, but there was always something being worked on when he came home. It didn’t matter if he had been gone for 30 minutes to run to the grocery store of if he was out all weekend for a hit, Nate would somehow manage to create something new out of something old.

Sometimes it was small – blackout curtains in the bedrooms, an artisan-quality glass ashtray at Wade’s place at the table, a quilt over the back of the couch that made Wade think of Scandinavia for some reason, or a new recipe; a different blend of seasoning that made Wade’s throat tingle, or a different beer that Wade didn’t know was different because Nathan poured it in a glass for him to try blind with their dinner. It didn’t matter that Wade wasn’t a beer guy; Nate apparently was, and it made him happy that he got to experience the small things with him. Nate downed beer like it was water, but he had a taste for finer alcohol as well. Blessed were the days Nate indulged Wade and pulled out an expensive aged bottle of whiskey for them to enjoy together, bathing their senses in sweet amber and oak and spice that made Wade’s toes curl and heat spread deep in his body.

Other times, it was grand, and involved Wade stepping over plastic sheeting and paint cans and piles of debris before he could see Nathan’s latest masterpiece – fresh grout and updated tiles in the bathroom, illuminated by a new light fixture that made the space seem so much bigger than it really was; floors without carpet, leaving them to tread on dull, dusty hardwoods with bare feet until Nathan sanded and polished the daylights out of them, making them so smooth and luminous that Wade could damn well skate across the house in his socks; kitchen cabinets being stripped of their awful varnish and repainted a crisp matte black that perfectly accented the slab of white granite off to the side that would soon be their new counter, and when Wade ran his bare hands over the smooth surface, his first thought was how cold it would feel against his bare chest as Nathan braced his strong, calloused hands over the small of his back, bending him over and fucking into him, hard and fast and furious.

Wade was taking it in as a learning experience _. Who knew mounting a TV on the wall could look so sexy?_ _How many different ways can I imagine Nate making me cum in the time it takes to microwave a Hot Pocket? How much tighter can his shirt sleeves get before I have a heart murmur?_

It really didn’t help that Nathan wore civilian clothes like they were stitched with his body in mind. Too often Wade would come in from outside to find Nathan in a ribbed tank top and slim-fit dark-wash jeans and nearly chew a hole through his bottom lip just watching the muscles of his back flex as he worked, a thin sheen of sweat making his skin glisten and turn the roots of his hair dark, the air filled with his unmistakably masculine smell of salt and metal and heat, so thick in the air Wade could taste it. Like today.

“Better be careful or that thing will chop your head off,” Wade said as casually as he could while openly ogling his figure, gazing up the ladder Nathan was perched on with a screwdriver between his teeth as he fiddled with the cords on the ceiling fan.

“I’m always careful,” Nathan replied, only sparing Wade a glance after he pulled the right cord and the fan slowly stopped spinning, pointing the screwdriver at him with a twinkle in his eye. “You could learn a thing or two.”

“Oh, you’re so right.” Wade smiled around his cigarette, which he used as a buffer to keep his mouth partially occupied. Without it, he’d probably need his smitten grin surgically removed from his face. “Lucky for me, I’ve got you to do this shit for me. Gives me a wonderful view of your ass in those pants.”

Nathan snorted, attention back on the light he was tightening. “Like what you see?”

“You better believe it, handsome. Making me think all kinds of gay thoughts.”

“Gayer than usual?”

 _“_ Blow me, Terminator.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Nate said with a Cheshire smile. “Go fuck yourself.”

Wade flipped him off and tried his damn hardest to slink away as if he _wasn’t_ about to rub one out real quick, as if Nathan cursing at him playfully didn’t make all the blood in his body rush to his dick and make his shoulders shake with effort to conceal it. In turn, Nathan tried to act like he couldn’t feel Wade’s arousal like an electric current or smell the need on him like a bitch in heat and willed his own strained semi to go away.

The tension eventually became less stifling as the day went on, though whether it truly ever fizzled out was up for debate, with Wade doing his best to stay out of the way of Nathan’s work while Nate tidied up the messes he made and got ready to prepare dinner. Nathan often worked alone in the kitchen and liked it that way. Wade would occasionally pop in to remark about how good the food smelled, hovering so close to Nathan he could feel the warmth of his body without Wade’s back physically pressing against him, just one hand laid loosely over his metal shoulder and Nate would shrug him off, telling him to wash up instead of kissing his ass.

Wade set the table with paper plates and red plastic cups because he agreed to do dishes and to him, throwing them away was a perfect alternative to washing them, and Nathan set a pot of dirty rice between them. “What are you drinking?” he asked, laying a dish cloth he had wrapped around the pot handles over his shoulder.

Wade hummed thoughtfully as he sat and spooned himself a portion of rice. “Whiskey, neat.”

Nathan rummaged around in a cabinet then set the bottle of Jack in front of Wade. “I’m not Weasel. You make it how you like it.”

Wade smirked as he poured. “The service around here, just unbelievable…”

Nathan smiled to himself and grabbed a beer from the fridge, popping the tab open with his teeth. He sat across from Wade and after clinking their drinks together, tucked into the food.

“Hey, can I ask you somethin’? Something personal?” Wade asked after some time, hand loosely covering his mouth as he chewed.

Nathan scraped his fork around the plate and tried not to bristle at the serious, inquisitive tone of Wade’s voice. “Shoot.”

“Do you miss your family?”

Nathan reached for a napkin and chose his words carefully as he wiped his hands more thoroughly than necessary. “My wife hasn’t been born yet.”

“Okay, I see what you’re doing.” Wade pointed his fork across the table. “You don’t talk about feelings so you say practical shit. I know she’s not alive yet, you’re in the fuckin past.” He swallowed some more rice. “I know you have memories of ‘em, your wife and your kid. You must think about ‘em, the good times and shit.”

When Nate took a long drink and said nothing, Wade sighed and pushed food around on his plate. “Look, I’m just tryin’ to get to know you better. Guess family is off limits.”

“Do you miss Vanessa?”

Wade paused, fork in the air between his plate and his mouth. He huffed and took a bite and said, “Of course, but we weren’t a family. She died the same day she told me she was off her birth control. We didn’t get a fuckin’ chance.”

Nathan hummed, and Wade gave him a calculating look. “What was it like?”

“What was what like?”

“Meeting her.”

Nathan sighed and leaned back in his chair. He ran his metal hand through his hair then pinched the bridge of his nose and Wade watched the sinews and plates move, bunching and stretching like actual muscle. It was a minute before he spoke, and his voice was low and somber.

“She didn’t know what she was getting into.” He paused, choosing his words carefully as Wade looked at him calmly, empathy shining in his eyes which nudged Nathan to continue. “She was a civilian. I carried death with me since I first held a gun, and it didn’t matter to her. She saw everything, but never judged me, and didn’t stop seeing me when the virus really started spreading.”

Wade’s neutral expression turned into a frown. “Virus?”

Nathan stuck his bionic arm out then made a sweeping gesture towards his whole body. “Techno-organic virus.” He folded his hands under his chin, worrying his lip between his teeth slightly before sighing tiredly. “Fuck Wade, you know how it goes. Suddenly you wake up one day and you’re different from everyone else. It was hard for me to get used to, but Alana made me feel like the man I was before. Made it hurt less.”

Wade sipped his whiskey thoughtfully. “Does it still hurt?”

Nathan smiled softly and picked up his fork again. “I’m used to it nowadays. Besides, there’s no sense in getting worked up over something about myself I can’t change, y’know?”

“That’s a very practical way of looking at it.”

“I’m a pretty practical guy, what can I say?”

Wade smiled despite himself. “You really are.”

“I do miss them,” Nathan said after a few beats, looking down at his empty plate. “My timeline was no place for her, or for Hope. They aren’t like me. I was hoping I could do something to change that.”

“Make the world a better place?”

“Something like that.”

Wade waited until Nathan met his eye and held it. “You already are. For me, anyway. I mean, look at this place. You’ve turned it around from condemned to habitable. Flipped a flop. Fuck knows I couldn’t have done it without ya.”

Nathan’s eyes softened, and Wade let a genuine smile creep onto his face. “Wouldn’t be eating this good without you either.”

“So I’m only good for what I can do for you, got it,” Nathan said with a mock-serious tone as he scraped up the last of his rice.

“You bet.”

* * *

 Nathan’s favorite thing about living out of the city was how clear the sky was at night. Wade had retired after finishing his bottle and he was for some reason wide awake. He decided to sit on the back porch, bare feet being tickled by the overgrown grass of the yard as it moved with a slight breeze. The cool air was refreshing and smelled sweet and made his skin break out in goosebumps and he felt at peace. The world was asleep, and he was free to exist, just him and his beer and the twinkling stars.

He was idly watching a stray cat stalk a rabbit across the grass when he heard a shout from inside the house. It was a painful sound, and Nathan stood in a hurry, drink forgotten as he rushed through the back door, screen slamming shut behind him.

The house was dark except for the glow cast by paid programming on television, and Nathan made his way down the hall as quietly as he could as he approached Wade’s bedroom. When he reached the doorway, he called out to him softly and when there was no reply, crossed the threshold.

“Wade?”

“What’re you doing in here?” Wade’s voice was trembling in the dark.

“I heard you, in my head. You cried out like you were hurting, just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Nathan heard a sniffle and felt something in his chest crack when Wade said, “I’m fine.”

He crossed the room to the bed where Wade sat hunched over, reaching for the pack of cigarettes on the nightstand. He opened the pack and took one out, then reached for Wade’s wrist. Wade’s hand moved easily, and Nathan felt like he was manipulating a rag doll as he slipped the cigarette between his fingers. When Wade raised it to his lips, Nathan lit it for him, and could see in the short burst of light from the flame that his eyes were red.

Nathan sat next to him on the bed as Wade took a very deep drag and said nothing as he exhaled. They say together silently for a few minutes, Wade smoking with shaky hands and Nate watching him in the dark, until Wade cleared his throat.

“I keep seeing her die.”

Nathan nodded, knowing Wade meant Vanessa, and said nothing.

“I couldn’t save her.” Wade rubbed at his nose and exhaled sharply. “I kill quickly. I know how fast life can leave a body, when you’re dead before you know what hit you. She died slowly.” His voice cracked. “I could see the hurt in her eyes and there was nothing I could fucking do, Nate. I couldn’t do a single fucking thing because it went right through her chest. I can’t stop seeing her eyes whenever I close mine.”

Nathan watched Wade’s face in profile carefully and reached out to place his flesh hand gently on the back of Wade’s neck, and Nathan felt his shoulders shake as the cigarette fell away from his face to make room for silent tears.

“If I were stronger, maybe this wouldn’t be happening,” Wade whispered.

Nathan sighed and squeezed the nape of his neck lightly, thumb brushing behind Wade’s ear like he was smoothing away a blemish. “Strength has got nothin’ to do with it. You’re plenty strong.” When Wade’s head bowed, Nathan continued. “It’s okay to grieve.”

“I tried to kill myself for her. That’s how I fucking grieve.”

“It’s not your time, Wade.”

Wade made a choked sound and Nathan knew whatever he said next would be something Wade would never forget, so he swallowed thickly and moved closer, so the outsides of their thighs were pressed together. Wade didn’t move away.

“Life is valuable. It’s a gift that was given to you, and she wants you to keep it. She knew you loved her, and she loved you too, and let that be what makes you want to live.” Before Nathan could think better of it, he let his hand cradle Wade’s jaw and direct his head so he could look into his eyes. “You may never stop grieving, but you will heal, and I’ll be here for you for it.”

Wade adverted his eyes but Nathan continued to look at his face. “You’re not alone anymore. I can feel your pain, and I understand it. It will get easier.” He let his thumb catch a tear. “I promise.”

Wade laughed wetly and turned his face into Nathan’s palm, catching his breath as Nate’s touch anchored him to the bed, this room, this moment of solidarity. “Thank you,” he mumbled, lips moving against metal and Nathan felt the air leave his lungs completely. He dropped his hands and Wade straightened up, wiping his own face with the heels of his hands. 

“I swear, if you try to kill yourself while you’re under this roof, I’ll personally snap your neck for you.”

Wade smiled slightly. “I’d like to see you try.”

Nathan smiled back and stood. Before he made it to the doorway, Wade mumbled, “Stay.” When Nathan turned around, Wade didn’t meet his eye. “I’d feel better if you – might be easier if you – I don’t know, forget it.”

“Okay. Just let me lock up first.”

Wade nodded, and Nathan left the room to head outside. He retrieved his now warm half-empty beer from the porch and poured it into the grass before bolting the door and switching off the TV. When he got back to Wade’s room, he was laying down with the covers pulled up to his chest. Nathan made his way around the bed and climbed under the cold sheets, lying flat on his back like a sardine in a can. He could feel Wade’s thoughts rumbling, not able to pick out anything in particular other than stress but didn’t feel that it was his place to say more to him about it.

“Guess I was wrong about you,” Wade said softly after a minute or two.

“Wrong how?” Nathan glanced over to him and watched the tiny smile play on Wade’s lips.

“You do talk about feelings.”

Nathan huffed a light laugh. “I’m a father, I’ve got to be somewhat capable of talking about and dealing with them.”

“Yeah, capable you are.”

“Next time, I’m charging you.”

“I’m not planning on there being a next time.”

Nathan stared at the ceiling fan as he didn’t have anything else to say and startled slightly when Wade spoke again, pulling him out of his dozing state. “Apologies in advance if you feel my boner in the morning. Not all my dreams are tragic and depressing.”

“Good fucking night, Wade.”


	6. Grease Is The Word

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seem to fall into the trap of getting on a roll with writing past my bedtime. I was going to wait to finish this tomorrow but I got carried away and here we are! Now for the moment you've all been waiting for - some sexy content! These boys have some fantasies and needed to release some tension *eyes emoji* I hope you have as much fun reading this chapter as I had writing it, and as always, a million hugs and kisses for all of you that leave kudos and comments!

Nate’s perspective about Wade changed after he spent the night in his bed. He didn’t get much sleep himself, just lay still and stared ahead into the dark with glazed eyes as Wade’s dreamscapes painted pictures for him on the ceiling, obstructed by shadows but full of emotion and color, and Nathan took it in like he was at the cinema. He wanted to feel guilty for being privy to Wade’s unconscious mind as that is someone’s most vulnerable state, but he couldn’t help immersing himself as time trickled by slowly and Wade’s dreams became his. There were no traces of night terrors, just pulses of feeling that washed over them in the dark, unencumbered and constant, serving as white noise until he was woken up by the sunrise.

It had been a long time since he had slept next to someone and he felt at ease as his bleary eyes came into focus. He yawned so hard his jaw clicked, then arched his back away from the mattress to stretch before glancing to Wade who was still fast asleep on his stomach. His arms were stuffed underneath the pillow and his jaw was slack, snoring softly, and he barely stirred when Nathan slid out of bed and padded out of the room.

He stumbled into the kitchen, feet dragging as he fumbled with the coffee maker. Once he sorted it out and the coffee started brewing, he leaned against the counter and rubbed a hand over his face. Last night felt like an alternate reality, and it was catching up to him quickly the longer he was on his feet. He wasn’t sure how long he had been standing there lost in thought, breathing deeply as still as a statue until the coffee maker clicked at the same time Wade made his way out of the bedroom.

“G’morning,” Wade grumbled, voice thick and raspy from sleep.

Nathan grunted a greeting back, pouring himself a very full cup and taking a scalding sip.

“Mm. Coffee. Me too,” Wade shuffled forward, arm tucked under the hem of his shirt as he scratched at his chest, then reached out with a grabby gesture when Nathan didn’t move. “Nate. Coffee for me. Now.”

“Help yourself.” Nathan stepped aside and held his mug with both hands waiting for it to cool slightly. He watched Wade fill his mug halfway and chuckled when he filled it up the rest of the way with Jack Daniels.

“Like it strong,” Wade said, blowing off the steam before drinking deeply. He hummed deep in his throat as he swallowed, satisfied. Nathan watched his Adam’s apple bob and if Wade caught him looking, he didn’t say anything, and the pair stood in a comfortable silence.

Nathan finished his mug before Wade and set it in the sink, then motioned for Wade to step aside so he could reach the cabinet that held their cookware. Wade crossed the kitchen and leaned against the opposite counter as Nathan set a pan on the stove and started on breakfast. He cracked four eggs into a bowl with milk and spices and scrambled them quickly. While waiting for the whites to cook out, he reheated their leftover rice from the night before and looked over his shoulder when Wade spoke up behind him.

“This must be a dream or somethin’,” he mused. “Are we married?”

Nathan snorted. “Dream on.”

“We slept together and now you’re making me a hot breakfast in your boxers. This is some coupley-ass honeymoon type shit. Lucky me.”

Nathan turned off the stove and shoved a very full plate into his hands. “Eat up and wake up, DP.”

“Dearest prince?”

“Dumb prick.”

“Close enough,” Wade said with a dopey smile that made Nathan’s heart flutter in his chest like a trapped bird. His crows feet crinkled cutely and Nathan lost himself for a moment as they gazed at each other, bodies separated only by a paper plate. Wade’s smile dimmed slightly after a second and his eyes dropped to the vicinity of his mouth, tongue peeking out to wet his lower lip slightly and Nathan swallowed and stepped back, delicately cutting the thread of intimacy or whatever that was pulling them so close.

“I’m going outside,” he announced as he turned on his heel and briskly walked towards his own bedroom. “Truck was making a weird noise yesterday, gonna take a look at it.”

“The door is the other way!”

“Putting pants on first, jackass!”

Wade smiled into his coffee. “Mm, can’t have you showing the neighbors your bulge when they go to get the paper.”

Nathan reappeared from the hallway with his hands on his fly, moving the hem of his muscle shirt out of the way to tug the zipper up in one quick motion. “What was that?”

“Nothing, nothing!” Wade exclaimed innocently, giving Nate a once-over with his eyes as he stuck a forkful of rice and egg into mouth to keep himself from saying anything else stupid and flirtatious.

Nathan smirked at him then shook his head humorously. “Holler if you need me for somethin’.” He slipped on his shoes and walked out the back door.

Wade stood frozen in place as he heard Nate’s footsteps go down the porch steps and once he knew he was out of earshot, let out an absurdly feminine squeal and wiggled in place like he had just been shocked by a current. He had been preparing to kiss Nathan when they were standing _practically_ chest to chest and the fact that Nate forcibly pulled away _obviously_ meant that his kiss would’ve been reciprocated. Right?

Wade hopped up to sit on the counter and quickly ate his breakfast, thoughts racing.

_What do people call gays that casually live together? A domestic partnership? That’s 100% fucking us right now, except nothing is casual because every time he makes eye contact with me for more than one point five seconds, my dick starts to get hard. If I wasn’t so emo last night when he touched my face, it would’ve been boner city. What the fuck is going on with me? I shouldn’t be turned on by him having manners and being compassionate, that’s weird as hell, but fuck, he turns me on. There’s no way Nate doesn’t know what he’s doing. No fucking way with all the flirting and playful fucking banter that he’s totally fine with dishing out while he takes it from me. Damn, I want him to take me. I mean – fuck._

He looked down at himself and to his relief, he was still soft.

_Cool your fucking jets before we have to have a clean-up on Aisle Three, in which Aisle Three is the inside of my pajama pants and the clean-up is – Why are you explaining this to yourself? Idiot. Fucking idiot._

Wade cleared his plate and chugged the rest of his now-lukewarm coffee and eased himself off the counter. He threw his plate away and set his mug in the sink next to Nate’s. He washed them quickly and efficiently, setting them to the side on a dish towel.

_You know what you should do? Harass him while he works. That’s always fun._

Wade straightened up, squaring his shoulders and with some semblance of resolve and determination, set off for the garage.

He was halfway down the porch steps when he realized he was bare-foot, but it was too late to turn back now as he felt the dew from the grass wetting his feet as crossed the corner of the yard to get to the warm concrete of the driveway. The garage door was pulled up and Wade heard the radio playing as he approached, and he was preparing to make fun of Nate for listening to Top 40 hits until he actually saw him, and all his witty one-liners completely left his head.

Nathan was in the process of rolling himself out from under the truck and Wade felt time slow down as he watched him come into view legs first, calves and thighs flexing under taut denim making way for his relaxed stomach that was still somehow in between being a four and six pack up to his chest, where metal melting into sun-tanned skin came into view and Wade had to swallow a mouthful of spit because Nathan was absurdly sweaty and his skin was smeared with dirt and engine oil and suddenly Nathan was standing and looking him in the face and Wade was just blinking at him dumbly, all the blood that was circulating in his head ten seconds earlier headed straight for his crotch.

Nathan wiped at his forehead with the back of his flesh hand and Wade’s eyes almost popped out of his skull at the way his muscles moved beneath his skin, his collarbones shifting as his shoulders moved, then Nate was smiling slightly.

“You need somethin’?”

Wade knew he had an erection, he could feel the head of his cock rubbing at where the buttons were sewn in on his pajama pants and he knew there was no way to cover it up. “N-nope,” he stammered, despite the fact he was using all his energy and his two remaining functioning brain cells to put words together clearly.

Nathan’s smile grew into a smirk as he quickly looked Wade up and down, wiping his dirty hands on the hem of his top. “You sure?”

“Yep. I’m good. Bye!”

Wade turned quickly on his heel and race-walked back to the house, Nathan’s raucous laughter trailing behind him like a shadow. He threw himself across the threshold and slammed the door behind him, pressing his back against the wood and staring down at the tent in his pants. He shoved a hand under the waistband to grip himself at the base, just squeezing as if he was trying to choke the life out of it and moaned brokenly when he pulled his hand away and felt a bead of precum dampen the fabric around the head of his cock.

He felt like someone had lit a fire under his skin as he made his way to the nearest bathroom, stripping his shirt off as he walked because he was so warm that his clothes felt suffocating. He didn’t bother closing the door all the way, he was moving too fast, tossing his shirt on the floor and pulling his pants down to rest just under the curve of his ass, exposing his crotch to the cool air. He stood in front of the sink, chest heaving despite the fact he had barely touched himself and he was so fucking hard his dick had a pulse.

He wrenched open the cabinet for something he could use as lube, anything that wasn’t spit because as eager as he was to relieve himself, he wasn’t prepared to literally rub the skin off. He spotted aloe vera gel and almost knocked the bottle over trying to pump some out into his palm. It was cold in his hand and he shivered, anticipating how it would feel where his skin was hottest.

When he wrapped his hand around himself, he cried out softly, moan getting caught in the back of his throat as he tipped his face towards the ceiling and jerked himself efficiently. Now was not the time to take it easy and play with himself; he felt like he was going to pass out from the sensations of pressure and coldness and he barely had time to cook up a fantasy before his breath started catching.

He didn’t have to use much of his imagination; Nathan was an absolute dream manifested. If God was a middle-aged cyborg with the body of a kickboxer, maybe he’d go back to church because damn it all to hell, he would worship. His fist tightened as he saw Nate in his mind’s eye still out in the garage, sweaty and greasy but shirtless. Nate pushing him against the truck, his hand down Wade’s pants just crossing the line of too rough but also not enough, fingers pressing against his perineum making his knees go weak. Wade moaned, gravel pitching up into a breathless whine as his thumb swiped over the head, precum leaking down his knuckles as he imagined Nate forcing his body upright but letting his head rest on his shoulder as he jerked him to completion in the heat of the garage, the smell of metal and oil filling his nose and making him lightheaded as his shoulders shuddered and –

Wade came hard with a cry, his free hand curled into a fist and pounding the counter with enough force he felt his pinkie finger break, but he was flying too high to feel any pain. His head bowed and he saw spots behind his eyes as he wrung himself into the basin of the sink as best he could. He exhaled shakily and looked at himself in the mirror and his reflection made him laugh though it was more of a huff of empty air; he was flushed from his cheeks to his chest, the knuckles on his left hand were bleeding and already bruising purple, and his lower abdomen was slick and sticky. He turned on the faucet to wash away his spunk and let his pants fall all the way to the floor. Shutting the door all the way with his bare foot, he started the shower.

Wade emerged from the bathroom approximately ten minutes later, skin fresh and no longer smelling like sex, and Nathan was nowhere in sight. _He must still be outside._ Wade dumped his soiled clothes in front of the washing machine and made his way to the bedroom to get dressed. He needed to get out and get some air and pretend that he hadn’t just had one of the most explosive orgasms of his life, and maybe have a drink.

* * *

Nate finished tuning up the truck at the same time Dopinder’s cab pulled up to the curb in front of the house. He wiped his hands on a cleaning cloth as he watched Wade cross the front lawn and climb into the front seat and smiled as the car drove away down the street.

He shrugged out a kink in his shoulders as he pulled the garage door closed and walked into the house feeling filthy but accomplished. He was glad he decided to play mechanic before taking a shower because he definitely needed one afterwards, but first he needed to put the clothes in the wash before the stains dried and set into the fabrics.

When he got to the laundry room, he was hit with the smell of semen and he stopped in his tracks as reality set in; he had turned Wade on so much working outside that he had to relieve himself. That truth was so arousing, it made him feel slightly dizzy.

“You ain’t slick, you horny son of a bitch,” he said to no one, as he unfastened his jeans and stepped out of them, adding them to the slowly growing pile of clothes on the floor. He then peeled off his tank in one smooth motion and shucked his boxers. He needed to make this quick.

He spit in his hand and took himself into his loose fist, brow furrowed with concentration as coaxed himself to full hardness quickly. He often jerked off for the sake of relieving stress, rarely from overwhelming arousal because unlike Wade, he didn’t have the sex drive of a randy teenager, but something about Wade and his thinly-masked want made him want to tear him apart.

He picked up the pace and imagined they were in bed, together again but this time it didn’t matter how they got there, only that they were sharing the space and the sheets smelled like Wade and it was heady enough to make lust curl deep in his gut. He imagined Wade was tight and that his healing factor made it so that he could skip preparation without worry of irreparable physical damage and just bury himself to the hilt right off the bat. He imagined Wade would moan, low and long and wanton and would wriggle his hips down to encourage him to move, and he would grab Wade’s ankle and drape it over his shoulder for better access, a better angle to drive into him in deep, rough strokes, and Wade would meet his thrusts enthusiastically, begging for more stimulation with his other leg hooked around his lower back.

He wondered how Wade’s skin would feel under his hand, if the scarring gave him texture or he stayed soft, pliable, bruising easily under the force of his hand gripping his hipbone. He also wondered how Wade’s throat would feel in the palm of his hand; how much pressure he could apply before Wade was satisfied, barely hearing his choked pleas of ‘more’ and ‘harder’, breath hitching as his windpipe starts to give and that it’s okay because it’s exactly what he wants.

Nathan grunted as he came into his fist and on the clothes piled at his feet, breathing shallowly as he pulled himself out of his fantasies back down to earth. He reached down for his discarded shirt and wiped his messy hand on it, then threw the soiled clothes into the washing machine without another thought, ready to get on with the rest of his day.

* * *

 “I must be losing it.”

“You’re not, you’re fine.”

“My girlfriend died a month ago and my brain and body is apparently already over it,” Wade said, eyes fixed on the drink in his hand as Weasel cleaned up behind the bar.

“But you’re not over it in your heart?”

“I don’t know if I ever will be.”

“That’s fucking dark, dude.”

Wade drained the glass and slammed it onto the bar with a slight thud. “I want Nathan to fold me in half and make my asshole speak Spanish.”

“Run that by me one more time?” Weasel’s mouth quirked up at the corners, but his face remained neutral.

“I wanna get fucked by the guy that busted me out of the Icebox and tried to brutally murder me, who is also the guy who cooks delicious homemade dinners for me every fucking night and smiles at my bad jokes and is so rugged and manly that he actually has fun renovating our fucking house.”

Weasel said nothing for a moment, then burst out laughing.

Wade scowled. “Don’t fucking laugh, it’s not fucking funny. I’m losing my fucking mind.”

“Oh no Wade, it totally is, and I totally owe Domino a twenty.”

Wade made a sound between a sigh and a scream and covered his face with his hands. “You shouldn’t be placing bets on my sex life. The fuck I look like, a lottery?”

“No dude, you look like the suburbs has made you go soft. Not your dick, your dick is apparently _not_ soft but like, you’re catching feelings.”

“Hey hey hey, no, wanting to get laid is not in the same ballpark as romance.”

“It is for you,” Weasel said in a very matter-of-fact tone. “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with it, you don’t need to run from it if that’s where this train is headed. Besides, didn’t you say ‘Ness told you not to fuck Colossus? She didn’t say anything about Cable.”

Wade couldn’t help but smile. “True that.”

Weasel opened a beer for himself and raised it. “To your wild-ass future sex life, as long as you don’t get weird and fuck it up, no pun intended.”

“Fuck you.”


	7. Doux et Épicé

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The importance of touch is that it places you. It is the medium of the articulation of a relationship. Touch yields two different senses–that of connection and that of separateness. It makes for a sense of oneness … as well as for a sense of difference. One thing is sure: if we are not touched, we might begin to suspect that we are not here.” - Kathleen Woodward; Aging and It’s Discontents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just when you thought it couldn’t get more tense, I made it more tense. Buckle up. (I keep saying it but your comments give me life and I mean it. I literally check this stupid site a million times a day to read and reread them. I'm bad at responding to them but know that I have a special place in my heart for y'all and if I could send you an Edible Arrangement as a token of my gratitude, I would. Now enjoy!)

Wade relished days between jobs so much that as soon as he was sure his payments had been transferred, he practically glued himself to the couch and wouldn’t move unless it was absolutely necessary for his existence. That included pissing in Gatorade bottles instead of getting up to go to the toilet and using Nathan as a servant. He was convinced that Nate didn’t mind since he was being a busybody around the house as usual, and that the swats to the back of the head were just his way of showing his love. Or something.

When a knock at the door took Wade’s attention away from watching TV, he groaned and turned the volume down to call out across the house, “Nate, door!”

“Get it yourself, douchebag!” Nathan yelled back.

“Can’t!”

“Why the hell not?”

“It’s my weekend off! I’m relaxing!”

The knocking continued, and Wade pushed his luck. “I was literally out all night cutting throats in a warehouse. I don’t want to talk to any fucking Girl Scouts or neighbors who lost their dogs or the IRS. If you make me, I might end up killing them.”

Nathan stalked into the room, giving Wade a look that would make lesser men shit their pants from fear, but Wade just batted his doe eyes and smiled politely as he passed by towards the door. “Thank youuu.”

“I want to shoot you in the head, you spoiled, petulant man-child if only it would kill you,” Nathan hissed as he yanked the door open. Wade snorted and turned around to crank the volume back up on the TV until he heard “Colossus! What a surprise.”

“Hello Cable,” Colossus boomed. His voice always boomed. “Where is Wade?”

Wade didn’t even try to keep the sardonic tone out of his voice as he kept his eyes on the TV. “Dude, I love ya, but you can’t just keep showing up to my house unannounced. That’s bad manners! Plus I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I came to see you. We must talk,” Colossus said pleasantly. “Can I come in?”

“No.”

“Of course,” Nathan said graciously, as he stepped aside so Colossus could duck through their doorway.

Wade glared at Nathan as fiercely as he could muster and Nate just smirked back, flicking Wade in the ear as he walked back across the house, and Wade swatted at him like he was shooing away a bug. Colossus hovered awkwardly at the edge of the living room and Wade sighed heavily. He was not in the mood to entertain.

“Just sit down, man,” Wade grumbled as he reached for a cigarette, lighting it quickly as Colossus took a seat next to him on the couch, making the cushions dip to the point that Wade thought he was going to slide into him if he didn’t hold his ground. “Why are you here?”

“I want to see how you are living, Wade. How is adjusting to life in the house?” Colossus smiled cordially as he looked around the room. “It looks very good, you did good work.”

Wade looked over his shoulder with a huff, talking around his cigarette. “Yeah well, Nate’s the one with an affinity for HGTV shit. It’s not bad.” He ashed into the tray on the coffee table where he had previously been resting his feet. “So as you can see, I am living just fine. You can go away now.”

Colossus was quiet for a moment and Wade took a deep drag before glancing in his direction, blowing smoke out of the corner of his mouth. “What’s the problem?”

Colossus flashed a knowing smile and rested his hand on Wade’s knee, much to Wade’s horror. “I am so happy you have moved on from Vanessa. This new life is good for you.”

“Excuse me?” Wade said incredulously. “Where the hell did you get the idea that I’ve moved on? Actually, scratch that. Since when are you a judge of what’s good for me?”

“You seem happy. You have not been happy for long time.”

“Boy, if you think this is my happy face, you need to get your fucking eyes checked.”

Colossus wasn’t deterred by Wade’s crudeness. “How is living with Cable? He is good man.”

“Stop trying to be my relationship therapist, you nosy son of a bitch.”

“He likes you. He is happy to be in house with you, I can tell these things. He is loose and plays with you, and you are not seeming depressed.”

“Loose?” Wade said under his breath, as Colossus continued.

“You have not been in news making trouble because of Cable, he keeps you out of trouble, yes? That is good for you to give up your ways, becoming a new man by, how you say, turning the leaf.”

“Don’t get it twisted, buddy. I’m still killing people for a living.”

Colossus patted him on the back. “No matter. I can see you are happy, and Cable is happy. I hope you will stay happy and have peace. Vanessa is glad in Heaven you are living a good life here with him.”

Wade pinched the bridge of his nose as a slight heat rose to his cheeks. “Are you done?”

“Do not be so hostile. I am your friend who comes to say hello and make sure you are not dead like the last time I come to your home.” Colossus stood and Wade’s mouth quirked, a strange guilty feeling twisting in his gut as he walked back to the door. “I will see you around, Wade.”

“Yeah, okay,” Wade said as the door shut with a thud. _What the hell was that about?_

As if on queue, Nathan appeared from around the corner and leaned his shoulder against the wall, arms crossed. “What the hell was that about?”

“I was just asking myself the same question,” Wade said with a shake of his head, taking one last pull off his cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray. “I think he wanted to make sure I’m still alive just because I haven’t been in any fuckin’ police reports recently.” He chose not to mention his inferences about their relationship.

Nathan pursed his lips, parsing through the thoughts Wade was projecting. He detected embarrassment and indignation and saw an image of himself in Wade’s mind surrounded by a fuzzy, affectionate feeling that made his scalp prickle. He didn’t let anything on as he said, “So he cares about you. That can’t be an issue, right?”

Wade tucked his legs up until they were pressed against his chest and rested his forehead against his knees, forearm bent to gesture as he spoke. “If he shows up uninvited again, I don’t care what the fuck he wants, he’s getting a baseball bat up the ass.”

Nathan snorted. “So violent.”

“Just protecting the homestead from intruders.”

“I thought he was your friend.”

Wade looked up. “It’s them versus us, Nate. High and mighty X-men against two morally questionable lone wolves pretending to live a stable life in a neighborhood so white that the Homeowner’s Association sends you warning letters if you don’t cut the grass regularly. We’re in this together.”

Nathan felt like there was something Wade wasn’t saying, and he smiled softly. “Wade Wilson and Nathan Summers against the world?”

Wade looked up at him, eyes suddenly glossy. “So you do have a last name. All this time you had me thinking you were riding with Cher and Prince and Beyoncé.”

Nathan rolled out a kink in his neck, not giving into Wade’s jibes. He had more important questions to ask. He tipped his chin towards Wade and said quietly, “You running from somethin’, Wade?”

Wade gave him a sideways look, body language showing a sudden onset of anxiety as he tried on a casual smile. “Just away from crazies.” He gestured broadly. “This is my fortress of solitude.”

Nathan took a step forward with purpose, boots thudding on the floor. “Except it’s not that solitary.” He came around the back of the couch, leaning into Wade’s space as he rested his forearm on the back of the couch, voice low. “You don’t let anyone in, yet here I am.”

Wade’s eyes widened slightly at Nate’s proximity, and swallowed. “Here you are.”

Nate could sense the stirring of arousal in the air and he wanted to push it. He was curious how far he could nudge Wade before he snapped, so he let his mouth curl into a sultry smile and made sure to let his eyes roam over Wade’s face before settling on his lips. He leaned slightly closer.

“Enjoying the pleasure of my company?”

His eyes flicked up to Wade’s, catching him staring at his own mouth with his lids at half-mast. “Pleasure…” he mumbled, the word weighing his tongue down like lead while tasting sweet like honey.

Desire was being projected brightly from Wade, washing over the space between them like waves against weathered rocks, and beyond that, Nate sensed a bone-deep need for touch that went beyond sexual. Wade was hungry for intimacy and he knew it was wrong to play with him like this but couldn’t resist letting his fingers trace Wade’s jawline delicately as he closed his eyes and tilted his head slightly.

He contemplated closing the gap but thought better of it and pressed closed lips between Wade’s brow bones, hand slipping from his jaw around the back of his neck as he held him there for what felt like many moments but was really only a second.

He pulled away smoothly and found Wade’s expression extremely amusing, eyes glazed and his mouth slightly open as if he wanted to ask a question but couldn’t get the words out.

“You hungry?”

Wade’s mouth flapped open and closed for a couple seconds. “Y-you don’t get to do that.”

Nathan was already in the kitchen, reaching in the fridge for a drink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Do you want me or not?” He asked bluntly, voice a little too loud.

Nathan turned his back, hiding the satisfied grin threatening to split his cheeks. “What I want is for you to get your ass up off the couch and help me out instead of sitting there like an entitled brat while I do all the work. Like usual.”

Wade scowled and joined him in the kitchen. “Fuck you and your mind games, you tease.”

“Just keeping you on your toes, making sure you’re awake,” Nathan said nonchalantly, sharpening a chopping knife. When Wade swatted at the back of his head, he laughed. “Pass me the garlic, moron.”

* * *

Lunch passed with no shortage of physical passes. Wade couldn’t let go of Nathan’s stunt earlier, which in his mind was just plain cruel and not at all funny and decided to up the ante. If Nate wanted to play gay chicken, call him Colonel Fucking Sanders.

Nathan had asked him to help with the food, and they both knew Wade was no help at all and was more of an obstacle in the kitchen than anything else, but Nate asked him to do things anyway. Cut this, wash that, move your candy ass so I can reach my beer, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and Wade did everything he was asked, but did it as flirtatiously as humanly possible.

Whenever the opportunity presented itself, he pressed himself into Nathan’s personal space, purposefully lining up his chest to Nate’s back to bump his crotch against his ass while reaching over his shoulder, savoring every touch until Nate would shove him away with a well-placed elbow to the rib. And if Wade couldn’t get him from behind, he would block him from the front, refusing to budge from his spot while making snide remarks until Nate brought the chopping knife up to his throat, and Wade would dare him with his eyes to do it.

_Cut me, you coward. Make me feel something._

Nate’s bionic eye would glint with mirth and he’d shove Wade bodily out of the way and call him insults that were so close to pet names Wade had the idea to just call him ‘baby’, and when he did, Nathan didn’t lose his cool at all. Much to Wade’s chagrin, Nate shot him a dark smile and told him ‘Next time I want to hear your voice, I’ll make sure you know it, pretty boy,” and left him standing there with unwanted semi, because of all the things he was expecting from Nate, praise was not it.

_Just get on your knees and swallow his cock already._

It only got worse when after they ate, Nathan stripped off his overshirt to go out to cut the grass, and Wade nearly bit his tongue in half to keep himself from keening like a bitch. He watched him from the window, admiring how the sun beat down on his skin making his metal parts shine and before he realized it, he was palming himself through his jeans to relieve some pressure because god damn it, Nate looked like a three course meal when he was sweaty, and suddenly Nathan was looking straight at him, lawnmower stalled by the sidewalk.

He’d been spotted.

_Oh fuck._

Wade quickly backed away from the window, face flushed with embarrassment as his erection pressed firmly against his zipper, and he fumbled with the button of his fly as he walked across the house, determined to make it quick when he heard the front door knock against the wall and he _panicked_ , racing to the bathroom and throwing himself inside.

He wasn’t alone for more than three seconds when the bathroom door opened and there was Nathan, skin glistening and smelling like dirt and grass and heat and Wade pressed his back against the wall, praying that he’d somehow have the ability to phase through it and disappear.

Nate was giving his crotch a pointed look and Wade’s heart was pounding in his chest as he scrambled for something to say, anything to ease the tension. “Like what you see?” he tried to joke, and when Nathan’s eyes darkened, he froze.

“What do you think?”

Wade’s chest damn near collapsed in on itself when Nathan crossed the threshold, letting the door swing shut behind him. He approached him with slow steps just like before on the couch, and Wade could taste his scent in the air as he drew closer. Nathan didn’t stop until they were less than a foot apart.

“You asked me if I wanted you,” Nate enunciated when Wade said nothing, voice sounding like sandpaper over gravel making hot blood shoot straight to Wade’s cock. “What do you think?”

Wade licked his lips and tried to string words together into a sensible sentence, but before he could say anything coherent, Nathan leaned so close that they were breathing in eachother’s air.

“How long are we going to pretend that I don't know how bad you're aching for me, Wade?”

The words tickled Wade’s ear and he made a soft broken sound, so quiet it barely escaped his throat but Nathan heard it, of course he did, and he went in for the kill, crowding him against the wall with his body and putting his lips right next to Wade’s ear.

“Tell me I’m wrong, that you don’t want this,” he murmured, flesh hand slithering between their bodies to cradle Wade’s bulge, and Wade’s head thumped against the wall because Nathan’s thumb was pressing on a vein and he was _throbbing_.

“What’s the point in telling you something you already know,” Wade gasped out, and Nathan chuckled in his ear.

“You’re right, what’s the point when I’ve known all this time how fucking horny you are for me.” Nate tightened his grip, fingers splaying in the gap between his boxers and his jeans to cradle his balls and Wade shivered. “You think so loud, Wade. I know what you want, how you want it, and how desperate you are to get it.”

His bionic hand reached up and grabbed Wade by the scruff of his neck and Wade whimpered. “I know your fucking fantasies. You’ve thought about this.” He kicked Wade’s feet apart, forcing him to spread his legs as his jeans slipped down on his hips and lined his thigh up against Wade’s crotch, hand that was previously applying delicious pressure resting flat against his lower stomach, fingers nimbly pushing up the hem of his shirt. “Me using my strength against you, pining you down, taking what I fucking want.” He nuzzled his nose against Wade’s jawline. “Using you as a fucktoy.”

Wade groaned, the sound coming from deep in his chest as he hung his head and breathed in Nathan’s smell as he tried to rock his hips against the thigh between his legs, but Nathan wasn’t having it. He jerked Wade’s head back to the wall with such force that Wade saw stars.

“Look at you, thinking with your cock instead of your pretty head. You’re like an animal. Desperation makes you weak and stupid.” He brought his hand that was on Wade’s abs up to his jaw, angling his head so Wade’s chin was tilted up and if Wade wanted to look at him, he’d have to look down his nose. “You have no control. You’ll take what I give you and only what I give you, and I haven’t given you anything yet, you cunt.”

Wade’s chest was heaving. “Please Nate, p-please, I need –“ he wriggled his hips, chasing friction. He was so hard it was physically paining him to stay confined in his underwear.

Nathan laughed darkly. “I know what you need, I’m reading you loud and clear. But that’s not good enough.” He tightened his grip on Wade’s jaw, thumb dragging over Wade’s spit-slick bottom lip. “Use that pretty mouth and beg.”

Wade moaned when Nate’s fingers closed around his throat and he was lifted bodily about an inch off of the ground, supported only by Nathan’s thigh between his legs and his hands on either side of his neck. He swallowed and the pressure turned him on even more.

“I want you t-to,” he struggled to get the words out partly from embarrassment and partly from the fact he was having trouble breathing. “I want you to touch me. Touch my cock and make me come. I w-want you like this, choking me, claiming me – ahh,” He gasped as he felt Nathan adjust his thigh, pressing it up against his balls. The movement nudged his cock forward and up and the head now peeked out from under the elastic of his waistband, completely flat against his stomach and flushed dark like a ripe plum. He tried to look down at himself but Nathan’s grip kept his head still and he whined as he felt a bead of precum against his abs. “Oh f-fuck Nate, I’m fucking close, it hurts so good, God, p-please!”

“You want to come like this? Choked out against a wall without me laying a hand on your cock?” Nathan lined his thumbs up against Wade’s windpipe and pressed down, cutting Wade’s groan off efficiently and watched color slowly bloom in his cheeks as he was deprived of oxygen, head lolling against the wall.

“Well it’s a shame we can’t always get what we want, can we?”

Nathan released Wade with a smooth move, pulling his thigh back from between Wade’s legs as Wade gasped deeply, hunching over as soon as his feet were flat on the floor, hands clutching at his throat as he raked oxygen into his lungs with his eyes closed. Nate watched him regain his bearings and before Wade looked up, he turned on his heel and left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

The door sliding into the jamb brought Wade back into his body and he yanked his boxers halfway down his thighs hurriedly, crying out when he finally got his hand around his cock. It only took three strokes before he came messily, splashing his stomach and dripping onto his clothes.

He reached for a tissue to clean himself off and stood at the sink to wash his hands.

_So Nathan wants me, and knows I want him._

He looked at the red hand prints on his throat in the mirror and delicately touched them.

_Now I just need to break him._


	8. La Petite Mort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness.” ― Wilhelm Reich

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Enjoy, my lovelies!

Wade moved about the house like he was walking on a tightrope – a tightrope that was coursing with a current and made of barbed wire. Since Nathan had attempted to put him in place with his dominating streak practically out of nowhere, he was itching for more, and every moment between them felt charged with electricity. They didn’t have to be in the same room for Wade’s skin to prickle, he was just feeling more alive than ever knowing that he was near.

He knew Nate had only been partially playing with him. Some of that had to be real, right? He never said what he wanted himself and had only expounded on what he thought Wade wanted, but in Wade’s defense, he had never really thought about Nathan choking him out so that was all on _him._ Wade had enjoyed every second of it but that was beside the point.

So Nate knew what Wade was feeling about him and that made Wade feel powerful. If he really could sense his lust whenever he thought he was privately pleasuring himself, then Wade had nothing to lose because he sure as hell hadn’t been rejected yet, and if Nate was uncomfortable with it, he certainly wouldn’t have teased him so much.

He figured what he needed was a little push in the right direction. Put him in a position where it would be more ridiculous to hold out than give in. Practically offer himself up on a platter with an apple in his mouth and see how long it took for Nathan to take a bite, because Nathan was patient and had self-control, that much was clear, but there was no denying that he was hungry.

So Operation “Be Casually Slutty Around the House Until Nate Completely Loses It” commenced.

Wade went out of his comfort zone to lay it on thick. He was self-conscious about his skin and scars for obvious reasons but was very proud of his lithe but muscular physique, so he buried his insecurities down deep and took to existing in as little clothes as possible. Sure, he could go the more direct approach and paint a red arrow down his back that read ‘Rent My Asshole’, but he wanted to give Nathan dinner and a show so to speak, so he lounged around in underwear that he knew hugged his ass deliciously and feigned modesty with loose shirts that he carefully rucked up to show off his torso.

He spread out across all surfaces, taking up space like an advent calendar model and when he could feel Nathan’s gaze raking over him, he would shift and stretch, showing off a slice of toned stomach, a peek at his décolletage, and carried on as if nothing was different when everything was. Every move he made was planned to entice and carefully calculated as not to give away that he was willing to spread his cheeks and bend over as soon as Nate said the word.

If only he could get him to say the word.

When Nate strode into the kitchen to refill a cup of coffee, Wade perched himself on the counter and spread his legs to expose his bare inner thighs and made a show of smoking his cigarette like he was getting paid to do it, and Nathan just watched him, his face an unreadable mask.

“Is there any of that stuff left?” Wade asked softly, voice taking on a sultry drawl as smoke curled around his fingertips.

Nathan looked at him blankly because the pot in his hand was clearly half full, and Wade brought his foot up onto the handle of the lower cabinets, knee strewn aside to draw more attention to his crotch.

Nathan’s eyes flickered down then back up to Wade’s face quickly and Wade put on his prettiest smile and extended a clean mug. “Pour for me?”

He was internally squirming with delight when Nate took the bait and stepped between his legs and filled the mug to the top with hot coffee. Wade fought a satisfied smile around his cigarette when Nathan lingered in his space, and he let his ankle drop off the cabinet handle, closing the gap slightly.

Wade balanced his cigarette between nimble fingers and drank deeply with his eyes closed, humming as warmth spread down his throat. His swallow sounded incredibly loud because the air was so still between them, and he looked up at Nate from under his lashes.

“S’good.”

Nathan’s eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly, and Wade’s heart started to race as Nate put the coffee pot down to the left of his hip. His hands were now free.

_Push him._

Wade took another sip contemplatively, wiping liquid off his upper lip with his unoccupied hand as he set the mug down and looked down his nose into Nathan’s eyes.

“Could use a little sugar.”

Nathan huffed a breath out through his nose. “You don’t take sugar.”

Their faces were mere inches apart. All Wade had to do was close the gap.

He hooked his ankles loosely around the back of Nate’s thighs at the same moment Nate braced his hands on either side of Wade’s hips.

“I’ll take whatever you give to me.”

The words barely left Wade’s mouth when he felt himself being pulled bodily towards the edge of the counter and Nathan’s lips met his with a crash.

The kiss was bruising. Wade scrambled to put out his cigarette on the counter, moaning into Nathan’s mouth at the quick pace then as soon as his hands were free, he brought his hands up to bracket Nathan’s face, his stubble tickling his palms as he raked his hands back to feel his undercut.

Nathan’s hands were gripping his thighs like vices and suddenly Wade was being lifted up, hips meeting Nate’s stomach and Wade wrapped his legs tighter around his hips as Nathan panted through his nose, tongue slipping into Wade’s mouth.

Wade pulled back, breathing heavily with a dopey smile on his face. “So all I had to do was ask for sugar in my coffee to get this?”

Nathan’s lips were latched to his neck, messily trailing wet kisses from the crook of his neck to his jaw. “It’s not right to bait a guy like that,” he ground out. “Looking the way you do.”

Wade laughed brightly, gasping as Nathan discovered a sweet spot when he tugged at Wade’s earlobe with his teeth. “You’re one to fucking talk. What you did yesterday, fuck Nate –”

“You need to stop talking. Right the fuck now,” Nate turned them around and staggered towards the bedroom, Wade’s arms tightly around his neck as they crossed the threshold and Nathan tossed him onto the mattress.

Wade crawled backwards to settle against the pillows and splayed his legs so Nathan could get between them and as soon as he was kneeling over him, Wade surged up and captured his lips again. They were so fucking soft and he tasted rich like coffee and mint and Wade couldn’t get enough, especially when Nate opened his mouth up to give him more access. It was everything he imagined it would be but better, hotter and smoother and real, grounding him to the moment with the steady exchange of spit and breath and pressure and pleasure.

Wade’s hands could not stop moving. He decided he really liked touching Nathan’s hair, sweeping salt and pepper strands away from his forehead when they briefly parted for air, tugging on them towards the back of his head making Nate groan deep in his throat. He also couldn’t get enough of Nate’s fucking body, solid and strong under his shirt and Wade was pulling at his back, dragging the fabric up to encourage him to take that shit all the way off.

Nate had the same idea. He had one arm braced on the side of Wade’s head as he kissed him, his bionic one on Wade’s stomach and the contact was making his skin tingle because it was so cold and distinctly not human.

Wade was the one to pull away again, breathless, demanding “Off, Nate. Fucking take it off,” and Nathan sat back and pulled his shirt over his head in one smooth motion, pectorals flexing as his hands came down to tug at Wade’s top. Wade happily leaned forward so Nathan could reach around him and pull it off of him and Nate was immediately running his hands over Wade’s chest, feeling his body like a blind man reading braille and Wade couldn’t help that he was trembling under his touch.

“Nate, if you don’t get back to kissing me right now I’m going to fucking kill you, I swear to fucking God,” he panted as Nathan’s thumb caught on his erect nipple, rocking his hips up and tugging on Nathan’s shoulders to pull him closer, and Nathan just laughed, a warm rich sound that made his heart soar.

“You’re so fucking needy,” he said as he gave into Wade’s touch, covering him with his body and kissing him until Wade was completely lightheaded and writhing under him, hips seeking friction against his jeans.

Nathan bit and kissed his way down from Wade’s lips, learning the contours of his body with his lips and tongue, sucking bruises into the hollows of his throat and relishing in the reverberation of Wade’s pitchy moans as he left a brilliant hickey on his collarbones.

Wade mind was swimming in lust – the sensations were so good, but it was simultaneously not enough. He craved what Nathan had given him before. He needed the domination, and he wasn’t too proud to beg for it.

When Nathan ground his hips down against Wade’s crotch, he lost his breath and reached down to grab at his ass through his jeans, encouraging him to move again just like that, and Nate stopped kissing him for a moment to watch his face as he experimentally rutted his trapped erection against the crease of Wade’s thigh.

“Nate, I need – fuck, more, I need more,” Wade groaned, head lolling back into the pillows as he blinked away the haze in his eyes.

“What do you need?” Nathan asked, voice low.

Wade swallowed a mouthful of spit, enunciating as best he could while his blood was boiling underneath his skin. “Be rough. Use me. Hurt me, I won’t fucking break.”

Nathan licked his lips, bionic eye glinting as he regarded Wade, face flushed, lips shiny and chest heaving as he lay beneath him spread open, asking to be taken. How could he say no to that?

Nathan hurriedly unbuckled his jeans and shoved them down his thighs, dick finally free and jutting towards Wade obscenely. He wasn’t fully hard yet, but it was thick and flushed and Wade moaned at the sight, he couldn’t help it.

“You go fucking commando, oh my fuck…”

Nathan smirked and reached down towards Wade’s boxers where his erection was straining against the fabric and yanked them down his legs, leaving Wade to kick his way out of them. He then crawled his way up Wade’s body until his palms were braced against the wall and his weight was resting on Wade’s upper chest, his cock barely brushing against Wade’s lips.

“Want a taste, lover boy?”

Wade’s hands flew up to grip Nate’s ass and Nate didn’t hesitate to draw his hand back and backhand him across the face.

“Oh no, you don’t touch. Suck me.”

Wade made a sound between a laugh and a moan as his cheek throbbed and stretched his neck in an attempt to take Nate into his mouth. He was trapped by Nathan’s thighs on either side of his head, and he moaned pitifully as he strained to close his lips around the head of his cock.

Nathan watched him struggle until his need grew too great and he rolled his hips forward, thrusting himself into Wade’s mouth until he hit the back of Wade’s throat, and Wade opened himself up as best he could, humming appreciatively as his tongue laved the hot, salty skin.

Nathan let him worship for a moment, reveling in the wet heat of his mouth before he set a punishing pace and Wade did a good job keeping up, hollowing his cheeks to take as much of him in as he could until Nate’s hand came up to caress his cheek and he made a choked sound.

“How does it feel to finally have your mouth on my cock? Bet you’ve dreamed about this, cum in your pants thinking about servicing me like this, like a fucking slave,” Nathan ground out, hand sliding down to the side of Wade’s neck as he thrust in deep. “I can fucking feel you choking on me.”

His rhythm stuttered when Wade moaned loudly around him, lips slick with spit and swollen from being abused and Nathan couldn’t help himself, he applied pressure to Wade’s windpipe as he rode his face and tears sprung up in Wade’s eyes as he gagged, drool slipping out of the corner of his mouth.

When he felt himself getting close, he pulled out quickly and Wade coughed, cheeks red.

“Such a good boy, you suck cock so well,” he praised, caressing Wade’s cheek with two fingers and Wade closed his eyes and turned his face into it, jaw slack as he caught his breath.

"Turn over.”

He climbed off of Wade’s body and Wade hurriedly flipped himself over and all but offered himself up. Nathan chuckled darkly as he ran a hand down Wade’s spine and pressed down so Wade’s chest was against the mattress and his ass was in the air, full and round and begging to be bruised.

“So fucking pretty,” he groaned, and Wade smiled into the pillow, wriggling his hips enticingly.

“Thank you, Daddy.”

Nathan sat back on his haunches and spread Wade’s cheeks with his thumbs and before he could think better of it, licked around Wade’s entrance. Wade moaned brokenly and tried to cant his hips away from the touch, and from the shocked lust he was projecting, Nathan concluded that he’d never had this done to him before, and he grinned against his skin.

He reached into Wade’s mind as he exercised his tongue, using his reactions as a guide for how far to go. His mouth alone made Wade keen and arch into the sensations, and when Nathan reached behind his balls to press a finger against his perineum in a vibrato motion, Wade cried out like the sound was being ripped from his chest and swayed on his knees, and Nathan felt his ecstasy like an explosion in his mind.

“N-Nate, oh fuck, don’t stop, don’t you dare fucking stop, oh my G-god,” Wade panted, jaw slack as Nathan just gripped him tighter and ate him out with a fervor previously unseen. His moans grew pitchy and breathless and he tried to warn Nathan that he was close, so fucking close but he couldn’t get the words out before he came, orgasm taking over him like a tidal wave as he collapsed boneless against the now-dirty mattress.

Nathan was overwhelmed with need as he watched aftershocks shake Wade’s back and he couldn’t hold out for another second.

“It’s not over yet, you slut. I’ve spent all this time preparing you to take my cock, and you’re gonna fucking take it because that’s what you were born to do, you worthless whore. You’re mine,” he ground out, taking himself in hand and lining himself up, “and I won’t let you forget it.”

He pushed into Wade with one smooth thrust until he was pressed flush against Wade’s ass and Wade nearly screamed, pain lancing through his body from not being stretched with Nathan’s fingers. Luckily for him, Nathan couldn’t move for a moment because he was so overwhelmed by how tight Wade was around him that it took his breath away.

Nathan reached under Wade’s chest and lifted him bodily up back onto his hands and knees, gripping his shoulder as he draped himself over Wade’s back and began thrusting into him slowly, acclimating himself to the sensation of being inside Wade, being consumed by his searing heat.

“You’re so fucking – tight, so fucking tight Wade, Jesus”, he moaned, and Wade whimpered a curse, head bowing as he rocked on his knees.

“M-move,” he begged, and Nathan pressed a kiss to Wade’s shoulder blade as he pulled almost all the way out and rocked into him, rolling his hips and Wade moaned breathlessly and tilted his hips back to meet it.

They were fucking.

It didn’t take long for Nathan to get into a rhythm, thrusting into Wade sharply and Wade couldn’t stop crying out if is life depended on it whenever Nate’s hips met his ass with a sharp smack of skin against skin, and when Nathan hit that spot inside him, Wade’s arms almost gave out under him and Nathan held him tight to his chest.

“Jesus Wade, you’re so fucking hot,” he panted in his ear, grinding his hips to find that spot again and again and Wade was damn near sobbing with how good it felt, and Nathan knew it was good because Wade’s mind was open, and the raw feelings of pleasure that were washing over the both of them was almost too much for Nathan to bear.

When Wade whispered “choke me” brokenly, Nathan groaned long and low in his throat and wrapped his bionic hand around Wade’s neck and fucked into him furiously as Wade shook and gasped for air, and when Wade made a high-pitched keening sound on the edge of consciousness and came for the second time, Nathan came so hard he saw spots behind his eyes.

They stayed coupled together for a moment after just catching their breath, and when Nathan pulled out Wade collapsed onto the bed like a ragdoll with a worn-out groan. Nathan gently pushed him so he would roll over and when room was made, lay down next to him, chest heaving from the effort.

“It was about time, Nate,” Wade said after a minute, an exhausted but blissful smile on his face as he touched the mess of come on his stomach. “Fuck.”

Nathan laughed, he couldn’t help it. “Yeah, about goddamn time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "La petite mort" is one of my favorite French phrases because it translates as 'the little death' but it's literally talking about that state you can get into after a mind-blowing orgasm that is like being dead. I fucking love that. You go France. Speaking of orgasms, I hope these 3k words of porn haven't let you all down, I know I've kept you waiting for a hot minute! I have one more chapter planned after this and let me tell you, this won't be all you get, I promise. Feel free to scream at me in the comments and I'll scream back just as enthusiastically!


	9. Isle of Eros

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy some fluff and smut, not necessarily in that order.

After their first time, it was like they were completely different people. The last barricade that had been keeping them apart had been wearing away over the months they spent together but with a swift kick of well-timed hormonal desperation, it came crumbling down and now there was nothing stopping them from effectively consuming the other. After the first bite, they gorged themselves.

It wasn’t a secret to Nathan that one of Wade’s top-tier fantasies was being taken against the kitchen counter; he caught wind of it in his thoughts the same night he brought that slab of granite into the house, and Wade pressed himself up against his back so easily, skin hot as he reached around and touched him under his shirt while he was trying to cook and projected his thoughts so loudly the air practically hummed with lust, so what else was he supposed to do?

Wade enjoyed their game of cat and mouse, prodding the beast until it stirred. When Nathan finally gave him his full attention, a genuinely joyful laugh would bubble out of his chest and he’d allow himself to be manhandled, and when he wasn’t, encouraged it by trying to climb Nate like a tree, scrambling into strong arms to be lifted off the ground into the Ethereum where nothing mattered but touching and tasting.

In turn, Nathan liked being the one to capture Wade because he behaved like a wild animal that could only be subdued by his lips deliberately silencing his jibes and hands that tethered him like an anchor as he clawed and scratched and begged for violence, a primal need that could only be satiated by recklessness in the form of clearing counters with one broad sweep and being mounted and fucked so raw he can’t think of his partner’s name.

He quickly discovered that Wade craved intimacy through domination not unlike breaking a horse, in which psychological control outweighed the physical. Some of his best orgasms came from when he felt like nothing more than an extension of Nathan, their bodies moving as one and his mind open for Nathan to finger-comb and plant seeds of what he desired most, usually polar opposites that he somehow masterfully knitted together to make him black out when he came – degradation and praise, deprivation and stimulation, pain and pleasure.

So when Nathan bent Wade over the counter and pressed his chest against the cold stone, he immediately lost his breath in anticipation for what he knew was going to follow. It was amazing how isolated sensory experiences could light his nerves on fire – the sound of Nathan’s belt clinking, a zipper pulling, fabric rustling, and the feeling of cool metal and warm skin on either side of his spine was something he hoped he would never get used to, along with the sensation of having his insides feel like they were being skewered when Nathan entered him quickly with no preparation other than the precum slicking the head of his cock.

Wade knew Nathan liked him vocal and vice versa, so he didn’t inhibit himself at all as he pushed his hips back to grind against Nathan’s hips, ass flush against him where metal melted into skin around his v-line and Nate would push back until he was crowding him against the counter, arms caging him from bucking freely and Wade would fight it with a keening whimper, testing Nate’s unyielding strength as tried to push his torso up, only to slump over when Nathan bit the back of his neck like a wild cat immobilizing prey.

“Be still,” Nathan said, voice low and predatory as he pulled almost all the way out and back in to the hilt, flesh arm braced against Wade’s shoulder blades as the other held his hip firmly in place, grip so strong that sore spots would soon bloom into bruises and Wade moaned unabashedly, tilting his hips so Nathan could sink in a half-inch deeper.

“Want you, Daddy,” he whined, voice taking on a slightly higher pitch as Nathan slowly pumped his hips into him. “Give it to me like you mean it…”

Nathan applied more pressure on Wade’s shoulders, pressing him flat against the counter as he snapped his hips with little warning and Wade let out an agonized, breathless sound.

“Like that, you cheap whore?”

“Yes Daddy, mm!” Wade bit his tongue when Nate buried himself deep and just grazed his prostate. “Oh fuck, oh _fuck_ –“

Nathan chuckled darkly and fucked into him roughly and spanked him when Wade got comfortable with the rhythm just to add spice. Wade took the hits deliciously, face flushing red as the skin of his ass tingled and grew hot and Nathan huffed out a sharp breath when he whined for more and pulled his hips back to meet his thrusts, striking his prostate again and again. They came together, Wade into his fist and Nathan inside him and when he pulled out, Wade caught his breath with his cheek pressed against the counter top.

He straightened up and turned around as Nathan was tucking himself back into his jeans and he smiled, hands braced against the granite to hold himself up, still proudly naked from the waist down and Nathan smiled back and kissed him indulgently, tongues slotting lazily together as Wade stroked his stubbly cheek.

“I’m shocked you haven’t thrown your hip out of whack trying to blow my back out yet,” Wade said reverently against his lips, and Nathan snorted.

“The hell is that supposed to mean?”

Wade grinned incredulously like the punchline was obvious. “You’re old as shit.”

“I don’t need you to remind me,” Nate said without malice, pecking his lips once more. “I suppose it’s only a matter of time if you keep forcing me to fuck you into submission.”

“Would you rather we lay together like star-crossed lovers, spooning and holding hands and whispering sweet nothings to each other?”

“It’d sure be a change of pace,” Nate said with a smile.

Wade laughed as he bent over and pulled his boxers up. “Suppose it’s only a matter of time before you bring the lover out in me.”

“I’m sure we’ll see.”

* * *

 Every available surface in every room was repurposed for sex, and they had such a good time christening new areas of the house that it wasn’t long before their smell was lingering, and Wade couldn’t pass by a piece of furniture without his spine tingling from memories of being taken against it.

The couch was no longer a place to relax, not after he had come home from a hit and Nathan was sitting there with no shirt and sweatpants on, and Wade stripped himself of weapons as he crossed the room, straddling him and ripped his mask off for a kiss. Nathan always kissed him enthusiastically, holding his face like he was treasure and it never failed to make something in Wade’s chest crumple.

Wade ground his hips down against Nathan’s crotch as they kissed, trying for sinuous and sensual but really coming across as needy and desperate as he sought friction for his trapped erection, and Nathan caught his lip between his teeth and made quick work of the fastenings on his suit, peeling it off to expose his exquisite collarbones and strong shoulders and sucked bruises against the skin as Wade clutched his hair and gyrated against him.

It didn’t take long for Wade to get impatient and when he stood to strip the suit completely, Nathan pulled his sweatpants down his thighs and welcomed Wade back into his lap, rutting their hard dicks together like fumbling teenagers as Wade’s hands scrambled for purchase at Nathan’s shoulders and Nate chased his lips for another heated kiss.

Wade was a bit of a peacock in the way he presented himself for him. He knew exactly how to hold and move his body in ways that would awaken that insatiable hunger in the pit of Nate’s stomach as he took hold of his cock, lined himself up and inched his way down to a sitting position, leaving Nate to rake in shuddering breaths as he acclimated himself to the suffocating tightness.

Nate didn’t consider himself vocal beyond the realm of dirty talk for Wade’s pleasure, but when Wade circled his ass against his crotch, he groaned long and low and pulled Wade’s head down for a violent kiss that was full of teeth and tongue and need, and Wade moaned into his mouth before bending backwards to rest his palms against Nate’s thighs and fucked himself on his cock like a porn star, abs and thighs flexing as he raised and lowered himself at an agonizing pace, leaving Nate to moan gruffly and rock up to meet him, white-knuckling Wade’s hips.

When Wade threw putting on a show to the wind and really started bouncing, Nate let his head fall back against the couch cushions and lost himself in sensation, Wade’s slick, tight heat drawing gravely sounds from his chest. Wade started pounding himself down to stimulate his prostate and Nathan watched him lick his hand and jerk himself in tandem and felt his orgasm building like a cresting wave and when it reached its projected peak, Nathan’s hips stuttered, lost in Wade’s ecstasy and Wade came on his stomach with his face tipped towards the ceiling.

* * *

 Wade loved blowjobs. He loved giving them but especially loved receiving them when Nathan was the one on his knees in the shower.

He looked brilliant under the spray, wet hair slicked back off his face, cheekbones sticking out as he took Wade all the way in his mouth until the head of his cock bumped the back of his throat, and that was wonderful in and of itself but then Nate _swallowed_ around him and Wade was fisting his hair and bucking his hips into the wonderful warmth of his mouth while trying not to crack his head on the tiled wall.

Nathan didn’t just know how to use his mouth. His hands were busy while he sucked, rolling Wade’s balls in the palm of his metal hand and gripping his ass with the other, encouraging Wade to fuck his throat and Wade happily obliged, setting a pace that Nathan adapted to, opening up his throat and bobbing his head and humming around the heavy weight on his tongue and just seeing his brow furrow from the effort made a bolt of electricity jolt down Wade’s spine.

He reached down to cup Nate’s cheek and his knees almost buckled when Nate blinked up at him, pupils blown and lips stretched obscenely as he pulled off to suck the tip, tongue delicately flicking around the head. Wade slowly thrust himself back into Nathan’s mouth and he felt his cock through Nate’s cheek and he cursed lowly.

“Fuck, look at you…” he groaned, caressing Nate’s jaw as it dropped to accommodate the new angle, both of Nate’s hands gripping his ass. “You’re a fucking dream on your knees…”

Nathan groaned and Wade felt the reverberations in his cock and his hips stuttered. Nathan could sense he was close and pulled out all the stops, deep-throating him while slipping one slick metal finger between his cheeks to brush against his asshole, and with a full body shudder, Wade came in his mouth.

Nate swallowed everything that landed on his tongue and when Wade pulled out, he felt a drop leaking out of the corner of his mouth. He rubbed his lips with the back of his hand as he stood up again and Wade was in his arms immediately kissing him.

“Mm, you taste like me,” Wade sighed, hands roaming over Nate’s broad shoulders with one thigh slotted between his legs. Nathan just smiled and kissed him deeply, arms wrapped around his lower back as they stood under the spray that was now just lukewarm.

“Where’d you learn to suck dick like that?” Wade asked after some time with a cheeky smile. “I can’t imagine you were as thirsty for cum as I was in the army.”

Nathan huffed a laugh. “I can assure you I wasn’t.”

“We all gotta start somewhere. High school gym locker room? Backseat of a car at a drive-in? Do drive-ins exist in your timeline?”

“No, they don’t.”

“Damn. So it was high school then.”

Nathan smacked him with a washcloth and Wade just laughed.

* * *

 Nathan had abandoned his bedroom in favor of sleeping with Wade. Neither of them talked about it; they fell asleep side-by-side after a marathon fuck and woke up hours later chest to chest and it felt right, so Nate stayed. It helped that Wade was easy to sleep with. He stayed on his side of the bed for the most part, didn’t roll around too much or hog covers; once he lay down, that was it, and once he was asleep, he stayed asleep.

They mostly cuddled after sex. Wade would enjoy a cigarette or three with his head in Nathan’s lap and Nate would lean against the headboard with his eyes closed peacefully, hands smoothing over Wade’s sternum and bare chest as they listened to Wade’s throwback playlists and waited for night to fall.

“Y’know somethin?” Wade said quietly, his second cigarette burned down almost to the filter in his hands as he looked up at the ceiling fan spinning lazily.

Nathan blinked his eyes open and regarded Wade with a small smile, thumb tracing the faint line of his pectorals softly. “What?”

“I think you’re good for me. I mean, this is good. We’re good.”

Nathan’s smile faltered as he watched Wade’s face, waiting for a punchline but none came. Wade just took a drag and let the smoke lazily float out of his mouth before looking up at Nathan from his odd sideways angle.

“I’m not tryin’ to freak you out, so don’t freak,” he said, his voice overly-casual. “I’m just feeling it right now. This moment, y’know? It’s good, this is really good.” He looked away. Inhale, exhale. “You’re a good guy, Nate. Too good for me, but here you are.”

“Here I am,” Nathan said quietly.

“Been putting up with my bullshit for a long-ass time.” Wade looked away. “’S quiet the job.”

“There are worse jobs.”

Wade chuckled. “Sure, you could be sweeping the street or be behind the counter at Chick Fil A.”

Nathan moved his hand up from Wade’s chest to rest under his chin and tipped his head slightly so Wade was looking him right in the eye.

“You make this whole thing worthwhile,” he said quietly, pausing when Wade’s eyes widened at his words. “You’ve got a beautiful mind, you’re resilient, and you’re a pain in my neck but you’re what I need in this timeline. You’re it, you cocksure, pigheaded son of a bitch.”

Wade’s mouth turned up into a genuine, soft smile. “Shut up and kiss me, you hopeless romantic.”

Nathan smiled and bent down to kiss him sweetly, lips barely parting but still giving just enough heat to make Wade sigh into his mouth, his hands reaching up to cradle his face. They remained in that position for a moment that stretched into eternity, then Nathan pulled back.

“Why’d you stop?” Wade said, eyes closed blissfully.

“My back hurts. Sit up.”

Wade chuckled. “Old man.”

“Jackass.”

Wade sat up and gently straddled Nathan’s lap, and rested his arms on Nathan’s shoulders. “Just a thought, a work in progress, but I think I could fall for a guy like you.”

Nate smiled warmly. “I think you already have.”

He was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end. I can't believe it. I started writing this fic the night before I went to the hospital for a major surgery and I didn't think anything was going to come of it. I definitely didn't think I was going to post it anywhere, but look what happened and where it ended up. I truly hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you so much for reading and for all of your lovely comments along the way, you made me happy to write and have inspired me to keep writing in the future. Bless up!
> 
> All my love, Ryan.


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